The Battle of Grievances: Consolidating the Impact of Intergroup Competitive Victimhood and Charting New Directions

In this talk, I will review and update my work on intergroup competitive victimhood (CV). This concept refers to efforts by members of conflicting groups to assert that their group has suffered more than their adversaries. While my work on this concept began in 2008, CV was formally introduced in 2012 (Noor et al., PSPR), where we established its theoretical foundation, distinguished it from related constructs, explored its psychological drivers, and examined its consequential implications for intergroup relations. The first part of my talk will provide an overview of the growing body of literature inspired by CV, including findings from our latest meta-analysis encompassing over 37,000 participants across 51 studies. In the second part, I will chart new directions by arguing that CV is far more multifaceted than previously assumed. I will present new evidence demonstrating that CV manifests not only in direct competition but also in subtler, yet equally potent, forms: denying outgroup suffering, blaming the outgroup for their plight, demanding recognition of ingroup suffering, and moralising the ingroup’s victimhood. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of CV’s complexity and its consequences for intergroup relations.