eprintid: 10137728 rev_number: 21 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/13/77/28 datestamp: 2021-11-05 11:53:29 lastmod: 2021-11-05 11:53:29 status_changed: 2021-11-05 11:53:29 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Danbold, F creators_name: Onyeador, IN creators_name: Unzueta, MM title: Dominant groups support digressive victimhood claims to counter accusations of discrimination ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C05 divisions: F49 keywords: Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, Intergroup relations, Competitive victimhood, COMPETITIVE VICTIMHOOD, OPPOSITION, PREJUDICE, IDEOLOGY note: © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract: When dominant groups are accused of discrimination against non-dominant groups, they often seek to portray themselves as the victims of discrimination instead. Sometimes, however, members of dominant groups counter accusations of discrimination by invoking victimhood on a new dimension of harm, changing the topic being discussed. Across three studies (N = 3081), we examine two examples of this digressive victimhood – Christian Americans responding to accusations of homophobia by claiming threatened religious liberty, and White Americans responding to accusations of racism by claiming threatened free speech. We show that members of dominant groups endorse digressive victimhood claims more strongly than conventional competitive victimhood claims (i.e., ones that claim “reverse discrimination”). Additionally, accounting for the fact that these claims may also stand to benefit a wider range of people and appeal to more abstract principles, we show that this preference is driven by the perception that digressive victimhood claims are more effective at silencing further criticism from the non-dominant group. Underscoring that these claims may be used strategically, we observed that individuals high in outgroup prejudice were willing to express a positive endorsement of the digressive victimhood claims even when they did not fully support the principle they claimed to be defending (e.g., freedom of religion or speech). We discuss implications for real-world intergroup conflicts and the psychology of dominant groups. date: 2022-01 date_type: published publisher: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104233 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1897140 doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104233 lyricists_name: Danbold, Felix lyricists_id: FDANB35 actors_name: Jayawardana, Anusha actors_id: AJAYA51 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology volume: 98 article_number: 104233 pages: 16 issn: 1096-0465 citation: Danbold, F; Onyeador, IN; Unzueta, MM; (2022) Dominant groups support digressive victimhood claims to counter accusations of discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 98 , Article 104233. 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104233 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104233>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10137728/1/Danbold_1-s2.0-S0022103121001360-main.pdf