Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

IS IT SO COOL
TO BE A
VICTIM?
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

« VICTIM »: A CONCEPT USED

MORE AND MORE OFTEN
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

THE STATUS OF VICTIM

IS LINKED TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES

Sense of Collective victimhood

« A mindset shared by group members that results from a
perceived intentional harm with severe consequences,
inflicted on the collective by another group » (Bar-Tal et al., 2009)
 Can have negative consequences, BUT:
Not responsible for what happened
Moral justification
Superiority
Immunization (from critics)
Avoiding culpability and responsibility (not accountable for future actions)
Always morally right
Entitled for sympathy
“The victim is always morally right, neither responsible nor accountable,
and forever entitled to sympathy” (Zur, 1994)
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

BUT WHAT ARE THE LAY CONCEPTIONS

OF THE WORD “VICTIM”?

Scapegoat Fatality

Sufferer Weak

Dupe Fool

Pushover
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

USEFUL OUTCOMES BUT A

SOMEWHAT PEJORATIVE CONCEPT
What we think:

Individuals don’t especially consciously conceptualize what

is a victim…

But they may know that there are positive benefits to be

portrayed as a victim

According to us, if individuals are asked to think about

what is a victim, they will be less prone to portray their
national in-group as a victim
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

USEFUL OUTCOMES BUT A

SOMEWHAT PEJORATIVE CONCEPT
Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1974; Tajfel & Turner, 1986)
SI = “the part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his
knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups), together
with the emotional significance attached to that membership”

According to social identity theory, individuals are motivated to

maintain a positive conception of their groups.

Therefore, we hypothesize that the way an individual

conceptualizes victim, influences his perceived victimhood of his
in-group.
Victimhood & Reflexivity Hypotheses Practically…

TWO HYPOTHESES

1. Lay conceptions of what is a victim are mostly

pejorative (exploratory)

2. Pejorative conceptualizations of what is a

victim will be linked to a lower level of
perceived collective victimhood of the in-group.
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

PRACTICALLY: A STUDY

1. According to you, “What is a victim?” (15 lines max)

2. Do you think the… have been/are victims throughout

history/nowadays? (Not at all  Extremely)

3. Why do you think so? (open question)

4. National Identification Scale (glorification/attachment)

5. Demographic info
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

PRACTICALLY: A STUDY

2 conditions: Reflexivity/Control

What is a victim? What is a unicorn?

Perceived in-group Perceived in-group
victimhood victimhood
Identification Identification
Victimhood & Reflexivity Some questions Practically…

EXPECTED RESULTS

Lay conceptions: content analysis with IRaMuTeQ

Prevalence of “negative” words

&
?
Victimhood &
Some questions Practically…
Reflexivity

EXPECTED RESULTS

Main effect of the “Reflexivity” condition

5

3 Ingroup collective
victimhood

1
Victim (Neg) Control
Victimhood &
Some questions Practically…
Reflexivity

EXPECTED RESULTS

Moderation of the effect by the glorification (protection of the

positive image of the in-group)

Glorification

Perceived
Definition
victimhood
Victimhood &
Some questions Practically…
Reflexivity

FURTHER STUDIES

Improvement of the “Reflexivity” manipulation

Effects on
Perceived historical victimhood of out-groups

Perceived role of the in-group as a historical perpetrator &

Reparations/Apologies (Ricoeur, 2000)
Victimhood &
Some questions Practically…
Reflexivity

AGENDA

October  Translation of the questionnaire

November  Data collection
December  Statistical analyses & Meeting
January  Iramuteq analysis
February  First complete draft
July  Presentation Limerick
THANK YOU!