People endorse digressive victimhood claims without believing the principle they invoke

Evidence

However, we observed no significant associa­ tion between support for religious freedom and the forced-choice pref­ erence for the digressive victimhood claim (r(462) = −0.02, p = .701; Fig. 2). As can be seen in the upper left quadrant of Fig. 2, there are numerous participants (N = 55) who scored at or below the midpoint on support for religious freedom (suggesting indifference or opposition this principle), despite favoring the digressive victimhood argument. Because support for the digressive victimhood claim was high on average, this suggests that even those relatively low in support for the digressive principle (support for religious freedom) were still willing to express a preference for a digressive victimhood claim resting upon that very principle. — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 69

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s vicarious-victimhood question: support for adopters of the language is decoupled from belief in the underlying principle, suggesting purely strategic recruitment of the moral vocabulary. — connects to: Highly prejudiced individuals endorse free speech arguments they do not personally value — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 109; High outgroup prejudice outweighs weak belief in the invoked principle — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 107; People can sincerely promote useful falsehoods without conscious base motives (+1 more)
• QUESTION: This suggests the moral language is ‘borrowed’ purely instrumentally. Worth asking: does endorsement of competitive victimhood correlate with sincere belief, by contrast?

Related

• Dominant groups adopt victimhood claims even when they reject the principle the claim invokes. (similarity 0.90)
• High outgroup prejudice outweighs weak belief in the invoked principle (similarity 0.89)
• Prejudice alone can drive endorsement of freedom-based justifications for rejecting bias accusations (similarity 0.86)
• Highly prejudiced individuals endorse free speech arguments they do not personally value (similarity 0.86)
• Endorsement and perceived effectiveness of victimhood claims are mutually reinforcing (similarity 0.84)
• Insincerity marks some dominant-group victimhood claims meant to forestall criticism. (similarity 0.83)
• Support for digressive victimhood claims tracks outgroup prejudice. (similarity 0.82)
• Majority Christians endorse religious-freedom victimhood claims more than claims that Christians themselves are victims. (similarity 0.82)
• Dominant-group members endorse digressive victimhood claims more than competitive ones (similarity 0.81)
• Digressive victimhood deflects discrimination accusations onto an unrelated topic (similarity 0.80)
• Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta — Dominant groups support digressive victimhood claims to counter accusations of discrimination (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• People can sincerely promote useful falsehoods without conscious base motives #corroborates (0.80)
• Diffuse responsibility systems let culpable people genuinely believe they are innocent #corroborates (0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 711