Group martyrdom: Psychological functions of beliefs about national victimhood Cover Image

Grupowa martyrologia: psychologiczne funkcje przekonań o narodowej krzywdzie
Group martyrdom: Psychological functions of beliefs about national victimhood

Author(s): Krystyna Skarżyńska
Subject(s): Psychology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: collective victimhood; collective narcissism; social capital; attitudes towards immigrants; attitudes towards European Union; attitudes towards Jews; collective guilt

Summary/Abstract: The present research examines relations between sense of in-group’s collective victimhood and attitudes towards out-groups, entitlement attitudes and willingness to repair the in-group’s historical misdeeds towards an out-group. We propose that focusing on the in-group perpetual victimhood increases collective self-esteem. It also motivates individuals with low self-esteem (Baumeister, 1994, 2009) to accept collective victimhood beliefs. In two studies we tested hypothesis that in-group victimhood orientation: (1) compensates individual defi ciencies of social capital; (2) justifi es in-group’s entitlement attitudes and negative attitudes towards other groups; (3) delegitimizes out-group claims for compensation of historical harms. We also proposed that collective victimhood justifi es in-group’s violence and decreases collective guilt for the in-group’s wrongdoings. More specifi cally we proposed that collective victimhood mediates the relation between social capital, entitlement attitudes and negative attitudes towards out-groups. Both studies used the Perpetual In-group Victimhood Orientation scale (PIVO) developed by Klar et. al (Klar, Roccas, Schori, Kahn, 2009) in order to measure the in-group collective victimhood acceptance. SEM models that were formulated supported our hypothesis.

  • Issue Year: VII/2012
  • Issue No: 23
  • Page Range: 335-352
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish