The Invisible Pathways to the Entrenchment of Victim Identity in Online Spaces: A Hypothetical Model of Hypervigilance, Reward Mechanisms, and the Reinforcement of Trauma-Oriented Identity

This paper presents a hypothetical process model of how a victim-related self-concept following genuine interpersonal victimization may become prolonged and, in some cases, increasingly central to identity within online environments. The model proposes a transient identity window following self-concept destabilization, during which “I am a victim” may become a particularly accessible partial self-category. Repeated self-categorization, social validation, responsibility-reducing rewards, threat monitoring, and other reinforcement processes may prolong this window and increase the probability of more stable victim-identity entrenchment. Version 2.1 situates the model in relation to four external research areas. Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood (TIV) is discussed only as a parallel in self-maintaining dynamics, while differing fundamentally in its starting point: TIV concerns a predisposition toward victimhood, whereas the present model begins with genuine victimization. Competitive victimhood is considered as a possible group-to-individual-level analogy rather than an established individual mechanism. Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) provides empirical support for the association between genuine interpersonal victimization and PTSS/PTSD. Event/trauma centrality research independently demonstrates an association between greater centrality of a negative or traumatic event and greater PTSS/PTSD symptom severity. The present model proposes a hypothetical bridge between these two empirically supported research lines: interpersonal victimization may destabilize the self-concept, creating a temporary identity window in which victim self-categorization becomes a particularly accessible partial identity element while the victimization event functions as an autobiographical reference point. Online reinforcement processes may prolong this state and increase the probability of identity entrenchment and event centrality. The model is explicitly hypothetical and is intended to generate testable longitudinal predictions rather than establish causal conclusions.