Tamara Wolf

• As global challenges and humanitarian crises increase, the presence of injustice and inequality becomes ever-more apparent. This dissertation addresses the growing need to learn more about the drivers of support for disadvantaged groups. Using multiple pathways, this research focuses on four major factors, aiming to explore how justice sensitivity – a personality trait – and social identification – rooted in intergroup dynamics – both relate to solidarity-based action across various contexts, and to examine their relationship, as well as their interplay with intergroup emotions such as moral outrage and sympathy. Further, it aims to investigate the impact of political ideology, particularly liberalism, on attribution biases and their influence on emotional and behavioral responses when confronted with norm-violating behaviors by members of disadvantaged groups that one supports. Taken together, the findings indicate that justice sensitivity, particularly other-related justice sensitivity (JS-other), seems to be a reliable indicator of solidarity-based attitudes and behaviors. The significant role of social identification, especially on a superordinate level, is also supported, albeit with varying effects depending on the context. In an overall model, results suggest that individuals with higher JS-other tend to identify more strongly with higher levels of identification, which in turn leads to stronger intergroup emotions. These emotions then contribute to more solidarity-based action. Political ideology shapes how individuals attribute the causes of norm-violating behaviors, with liberals demonstrating a tendency to make lower dispositional attributions when the actor is a member of a disadvantaged group. While the severity of a norm-violation amplifies dispositional attributions, the ideological biases are found to persist. The findings aim to encourage individuals to reflect on their responses to injustice and to contribute to efforts that challenge social inequality. Ultimately, the insights gained here will be discussed in regard to suggesting theoretical as well as practical contributions for promoting more equal treatment across social groups.