Studied and Understudied Collective Victim Beliefs

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the existing social psychological literature on collective victim beliefs. This mostly includes comparative victim beliefs—above all, competitive victimhood and, to a lesser extent, inclusive victim consciousness. Other collective victim beliefs that have been studied include siege mentality, PIVO and FOV, dangerous ideas, and downward comparisons. The review illustrates that completely opposite intergroup outcomes can occur as a result of collective victimization, depending on how it is construed. However, the existing research so far has mostly been conducted in contexts of intractable conflicts and, therefore, may not generalize to other historical, political, and cultural contexts. For example, drawing on the Central Eastern European context (specifically, Hungary and Poland), this chapter suggests that other relevant collective victim beliefs involve invisibility of collective victimhood by third parties, feelings of betrayal, perceived territorial threat, and pride born of suffering.