Victimhood beliefs are linked to willingness to engage in intergroup contact with the former adversary through empathy and trust

Abstract

After intergroup conflicts end, beliefs about past suffering of the ingroup compared to an outgroup influence relations between former adversaries. In Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, we simultaneously examined the effects of inclusive victimhood (i.e., a belief that both the ingroup and a former adversary suffered similarly) and competitive victimhood (i.e., a belief that the ingroup suffered more than a former adversary) on willingness to engage in contact with a former adversary, a precursor of positive changes in postconflict societies. In one correlational ( nAlbanians = 159; nCroat s = 227) and two experimental studies ( NAlbanians = 161; NCroats = 341, preregistered), inclusive victimhood was linked to higher willingness to engage in contact with former adversaries through higher empathy (Studies 1 to 3) and trust (Studies 1 and 2). In contrast, competitive victimhood was associated with lower willingness to engage in contact through lower empathy (Study 1) and trust (Studies 1 and 3). We discuss the practical implications of our findings for interventions in postconflict societies.

Contact with former adversaries through mass‐media is linked to forgiveness after dyadic and multi‐ethnic conflicts

“…Mirjana Rupar https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0240-7886 Sylvie Graf https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7810-5457 Shpend Voca https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9812-376X How to cite this article: Rupar, M., Graf, S., & Voca, S. (2022).…”

“…Specifically, in one condition, participants read about greater suffering of Croats than Serbs (i.e., competitive victimhood) and in the other condition they read about comparable suffering of Croats and Serbs (i.e., inclusive victimhood). Participants in the control condition did not read any text(Voca et al, 2022).…”

When high right-wing authoritarians report elevated empathy toward a Black woman victim of police violence: “inclusive victimhood consciousness” from police mistreatment experiences.

“…Inclusive victimhood consciousness predicts favorable intergroup reactions even among those involved in major conflicts (for a review, see Vollhardt, 2015). For example, greater inclusive victimhood consciousness toward former adversaries predicted heightened willingness to engage in contact with them (Voca et al, 2023) and heightened endorsement for reconciliation among Northern Ireland Protestants and Catholics (Cohrs et al, 2015). The present study involved an assessment of whether individuals might connect their own personal experiences of suffering to a victim who is a member of an outgroup that typically faces similar struggles.…”

Collective victimhood and conflict-related attitudes: A meta-analysis

“…similarities across groups' experiences. Inclusive victimhood is typically assessed using the extent of agreement with statements highlighting the parallels between groups' experiences (e.g., "There are other Central and Eastern European nations that suffered as much as the Hungarian [Polish] people" (Vollhardt, Cohrs, et al 2021) or "The victimization of [ingroup] in Kosovo/Bosnia and Herzegovina is similar to that of [former adversary]" (Voca, Graf, and Rupar 2022)). Another version of inclusive victimhood frames collective victimhood in terms of human, rather than group-specific, suffering (e.g., "The Holocaust was a crime against all humanity [the Jewish people]" (Rosler and Branscombe 2020)).…”