Competitive victimhood serves opposite identity needs for victims versus perpetrator groups.

Evidence

Subsequent research has demonstrated that, in addition to the need for morality, engagement in competitive victimhood is also associated with group members’ need for agency (Kahalon et al. 2019). For members of the historical victim group, as discussed above, receiving acknowledgment of their victim status is empowering because it affirms their entitlement to rights, recognition of their unique social identity, and institutionalized compensation measures, including the redistribution of tangible resources (such as land). For members of historical perpetrator groups, winning the victim status (e.g., through claims of reverse discrimination) allows them to avoid relinquishing symbolic or concrete resources to the historical victim group. — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 122

Categorization

• XREF: Directly reinforces the existing synthesis’s asymmetry claim: victims seek agentic-identity restoration while perpetrators seek moral-identity restoration — here that asymmetry tracks agency’s allocation. — connects to: Dominant groups prefer shifting victimhood to a new harm dimension over claiming reverse discrimination. — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 6; Both reconciliation and competitive victimhood flow from the same underlying identity needs. — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations:…, 29; Victim groups seek agentic power while perpetrator groups seek moral reacceptance — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations:…, 65 (+10 more)
• ADDENDUM: Complements the ‘On Sacrifice’ piece’s treatment of how dominant groups rationalize retaining resources; this is the secular-psychology mechanism of the same ‘stabilizer of stratified societies’ logic.

Broader Connections

• Victim and perpetrator groups pursue agentic versus moral identity restoration respectively. #expands (0.90) — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 140
• Representation shifts formed distinct identity needs for victims and perpetrators #expands (0.85) — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 9
• Perpetrator and victim groups favor accepting versus assigning guilt #exemplifies (0.82) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 152
• Victimisation among advantaged groups likely works differently than among minorities #qualifies (0.75) — R. C. Tripathi, R. Kumar, and V. N. Tripathi, When the Advantaged Feel Victimised, 10
• Narcissistic self-regard may be projected onto groups as competitive victimhood. #expands (0.73) — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 150
• Outgroup prejudice predicts support for both competitive and digressive victimhood #complicates (0.72)
• Collective victimhood drives revenge more than reconciliation in both groups #complicates (0.72) — R. C. Tripathi, R. Kumar, and V. N. Tripathi, When the Advantaged Feel Victimised, 128