Tugendhafte Opfersignale kombinieren zwei Signale – Opferbereitschaft und Tugend –, um Mitgefühl, Hilfe oder soziale Vorteile hervorzurufen. Tugendhafte Opfersignale sind stark mit Narzissmus und Machiavellismus verbunden.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886924004240

Highlights

– Tested association of virtuous victim signalling with Dark traits
– Two studies (N = 1500), preregistered hypothesis tests and open data
– Strong association of virtuous-victim signalling with Dark Triad
– Virtuous-victim signals strongly predicted by Narcissism & Machiavellianism.
– Study 3 showed Sadism predicts attacking those accused of victimization.

From the linked article:

Researchers have replicated and expanded a prior study to investigate the role of dark tetrad traits in “virtuous victim signaling.” Across three studies,, the findings confirmed that narcissism and Machiavellianism are linked to this signaling strategy. They also revealed that sadism, while unrelated to signaling itself, plays a role in exploiting accusations against others for personal satisfaction. The results were published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Virtuous victim signaling combines the display of two types of signals—victimhood and virtue—to elicit sympathy, aid, or social advantages. A person engaging in this behavior publicly communicates their suffering, disadvantage, or oppression while also projecting an image of high moral character. This dual signaling has been shown to influence others, encouraging resource transfers or leniency while shielding the individual from moral scrutiny.

The results confirmed that virtuous victim signaling is strongly associated with both narcissism and Machiavellianism. Importantly, these associations persisted even after controlling for demographic measures predicting actual victimhood, suggesting that the behavior is more strategic than circumstantial. These findings supported the idea that virtuous victim signaling is a tool for social influence used by individuals with dark traits.