Demonising the Victim: Seeking the Answer for How a Group as the Violent Victim is Blamed

Abstract

The current study aims to understand victim blaming of Ahmadiyya group by majority Sunni Islam in Indonesia. We included ingroup essentialisation, outgroup essentialisation, identity undermining and belief in conspiracy theory as predictors of victim blaming. Results of a survey among 147 Muslims majority Sunni Islam shows that the relationship between identity undermining and victim blaming is stronger for individuals holding ingroup de-essentialisation compared to those with ingroup essentialisation. Moreover, belief in conspiracy theory was found to mediate the effect of the interaction variable of identity undermining and ingroup essentialisation on victim blaming. In addition, outgroup essentialisation was found correlated with belief in conspiracy theory but did not play a significant role to moderate the effect of identity undermining on belief in conspiracy theory and victim blaming. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.