Replicating What Motivates Conflicting Groups to Engage in Competitive Victimhood: The Roles of Need for Power and Need for Morality

Abstract

Because of the growing evidence pointing to the adverse impact of competitive victimhood on intergroup relations, research has focused on revealing what motivates conflicting groups to engage in competitive victimhood. Whereas Sullivan et al. showed that need for morality—that is, protecting ingroup's moral identity—predicted engagement in competitive victimhood, Kahalon et al. found that when considered simultaneously, need for power was the primary motivator of competitive victimhood. The main objective of the present research was to replicate Kahalon et al.'s Study 1 findings, testing the robustness of their results by conducting it in the context of a unique threat (i.e., COVID-19). Our results, involving a well-powered sample of Jews (N = 205) and Arabs (N = 152) living in Israel, demonstrated that while need for morality and need for power individually related to competitive victimhood, when included simultaneously in a regression need for power but not need morality predicted competitive victimhood among members of both a disadvantaged group (Arabs living in Israel) and an advantaged group (Jews living in Israel). Replicating the results from Kahalon et al. in the unique context of the COVID-19 indicates the persistent position that competitive victimhood plays in Arab-Jewish intergroup relations and helps to illuminate its underlying dynamics.