Examining Collective Victim Beliefs Using Intersectionality

This chapter examines the role of intersectionality in collective victimhood, which has been largely overlooked in the social psychological literature so far. Instead, researchers have almost exclusively examined collective victimization due to one particular identity such as ethnicity, religion, or nationality. This perspective overlooks differences within victimized communities stemming from other intersecting group memberships (such as gender, social class, caste, race, migration status, sexual orientation, etc.) that are also associated with disadvantages or privileges and that shape experiences of collective victimization. The authors discuss a research study investigating relations between oppressed groups –specifically, Dalits (lower castes) and Muslims in India– using intersectionality, in which gender and class were examined in addition to caste and religion. The findings suggest several so-far unexamined intersectional collective victim beliefs. Furthermore, the chapter provides guidelines for researchers who seek to consider intersecting identities in research on collective victimhood.