Western societies are more and more divided, stifling public debate to a degree that
democracy is at stake. Criticism is key to democracies but people generally reject
criticism from outgroups, even with costly and hostile defensive behavior. Current
registered reports challenge existing theoretical models that explain the processes
underlying the derogation of outgroup criticism. We suggest that the rejection of
outgroup criticism is motivational, that is, depends on the attribution of malicious
motive (i.e., that outgroup commenters are up to nothing good). We test implications of
this view in three lines of research. We test our model using (a) large-scale online
experiments, (b) self-reports and costly decisions in economic games, and (c) automated
facial action coding to assess facial expressions. We include experiments such as
moderation-of-process-designs to determine the causal processes underlying the ISE. As
our main contribution, this project contributes to establishing a motivational model of
intergroup sensitivity. In this, we go beyond existing research using self-reports by
employing behavioral, economic, and facial expression measures.