Predictors of competitive victimhood beliefs in Turkey's Kurdish conflict: Turkish and Kurdish group context

This study aims to contribute to the competitive victimhood literature by examining mechanisms that motivate groups with asymmetric relations to claim ingroup has suffered more than the outgroup. To that end, the research attempts to test outgroup trust, which has been tested as an antecedent of competitive victimhood in various conflict contexts, and relatively less studied drivers, which are moral defensiveness, narcissistic and nonnarcissistic ingroup attachments as predictors of competitive victimhood. Further, the moderation effect of perceived intergroup conflict and group status on the association between the proposed predictors and competitive victimhood has been measured. An online survey was conducted with 381 respondents ( Turkish= 230, Kurdish=151, 54% females, 44% males, Mage= 32.37, SDage= 11.36). The findings suggest that collective narcissism and moral defensiveness predicted competitive victimhood while outgroup trust and ingroup satisfaction did not significantly predict competitive victimhood beliefs. Perceived intergroup conflict moderated only the association between collective narcissism and competitive victimhood. Further, Turks and Kurds in the sample reported different patterns of competitive victimhood. For Kurds, increased ingroup satisfaction was associated with lower levels of competitive victimhood, whereas competitive victimhood levels did not change in relation to ingroup satisfaction among Turks. The association between collective narcissism and competitive victimhood was stronger among Kurdish respondents. Moreover, Kurds who reported secure ingroup positivity reported lower levels of competitive victimhood, but this association was not significant for Turks. Lastly, higher moral defensiveness was associated with higher competitive victimhood among both groups, but for minorities, this association was more pronounced. The results were discussed in relation to social identity theory, collective victimhood, and competitive victimhood literature.