Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol 30(1), Feb 2024, 30-47; doi:10.1037/pac0000716
Two preregistered experiments investigated the role of perceived group superiority in third-party territory ownership attributions (i.e., regarding a group as the possessor of a land) in intergroup contexts. Experiment 1 (N = 288) tested the effect of different versus same-time arrival to a territory on territory ownership attributions. The first-arriver group to a territory was more likely to be perceived as physically powerful, morally strong, and the owner of the territory than a newcomer (in within-subject comparisons) and a same-time arrival group (in between-subject comparisons), whereas a newcomer group was more likely to be perceived as more threatening than first-arriver (in within-subject comparisons) and same-time arrival (in between-subject comparisons) groups. Path analysis partially confirmed the proposed serial mediation model with perceptions of relative power, relative threat, and relative social distance as serial mediators of the association between arriving first at a territory and relative ownership attribution. Experiment 2 (N = 279) tested whether perceived group superiority affects ownership attributions. Physically (high wealth) and morally (high righteousness) superior groups as well as morally inferior groups (low righteousness) were more likely to be perceived as the owner of the territory than the groups who were physically and morally equivalent with other groups in the environment (control group). Implications of the present work for immigration attitudes and intergroup conflicts are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)