Highly prejudiced individuals endorse free speech arguments they do not personally value

Evidence

Looking at the associations among victimhood claim type, outgroup prejudice, support for the digressive principle, and the outcome of endorsement, we observed a strong main effect of outgroup prejudice (racial resentment) on endorsement of both victimhood claims. The digressive principle (support for free speech) was more specifically related to endorsement of the digressive victimhood claim. However, we found that positive endorsement of the digressive victimhood claim (i.e., mean scores above the midpoint on our bipolar measure) emerged even among those who reported relatively low support for the digressive principle but high outgroup prejudice. That is, highly prejudiced in­ dividuals were willing to endorse an argument based on free speech when used to counter claims of racism against their group, even if they did not highly value free speech themselves. — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 109

Categorization

• XREF: Direct confirmation of the vicarious-victimhood mechanism under validation: the dominant group does not internalize the adopted principle, it wields it. — connects to: People endorse digressive victimhood claims without believing the principle they invoke — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 69; High outgroup prejudice outweighs weak belief in the invoked principle — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 107; Hate campaigners exploit free speech to restrict others’ speech (+1 more)
• QUESTION: At what belief threshold does this strategic borrowing shade into genuine internalization plus reinterpretation of the borrowed principle? This study’s data can’t separate the two.

Related

• High outgroup prejudice outweighs weak belief in the invoked principle (similarity 0.88)
• Prejudice alone can drive endorsement of freedom-based justifications for rejecting bias accusations (similarity 0.86)
• People endorse digressive victimhood claims without believing the principle they invoke (similarity 0.86)
• Support for digressive victimhood claims tracks outgroup prejudice. (similarity 0.83)
• Dominant groups adopt victimhood claims even when they reject the principle the claim invokes. (similarity 0.81)
• Endorsement and perceived effectiveness of victimhood claims are mutually reinforcing (similarity 0.80)
• Dominant-group members endorse digressive victimhood claims more than competitive ones (similarity 0.79)
• Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta — Dominant groups support digressive victimhood claims to counter accusations of discrimination (similarity 0.79)
• Insincerity marks some dominant-group victimhood claims meant to forestall criticism. (similarity 0.79)
• Hate groups exploit defenders of free speech whom they would eliminate if empowered (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Hate groups exploit defenders of free speech whom they would eliminate if empowered #exemplifies (0.85) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3312
• Hate campaigners exploit free speech to restrict others’ speech #expands (0.75)