When victimhood threatens democracy: competitive victimhood predicts anti-democratic policy support through dehumanization for Republicans and Democrats

Both Republicans and Democrats claim that they are victimized by the out-party, yet little is understood about whether and how this competition is associated with toxic polarization. The current work aims to illuminate the psychological processes through which competition for victimhood promotes support for anti-democratic policies among partisans. To do this, we conducted a nationally representative survey (N = 2000) to examine whether partisans’ levels of competitive victimhood was associated with support for anti-democratic policies. Both Republicans and Democrats evidenced high levels of competitive victimhood, which was significantly correlated with support for anti-democratic policies. This relationship was mediated by dehumanization, but not prejudice, for Democrats, whereas both dehumanization and prejudice mediated the relationship between competitive victimhood and support for anti-democratic policies for Republicans.