Playing the victim pays off ... for marmots

At least among marmots, playing the victim when being bullied has evolutionary advantages. That said, it's not clearcut on the benefits:

Bully marmots still enjoyed benefits such as having more mating chances, whereas marmot victims suffered less reproductive success. But the benefits of being at the center of attention in a social network appeared to outweigh the individual costs of being bullied, Blumstein and his colleagues suggested.

And, this doesn't necessarily extrapolate, either:

Still, Blumstein cautioned that the findings about hostile relationships and social networking likely differ for each animal species, depending upon how dangerous the social aggression is for individual animals. He described marmots as getting "snappy at each other at times," but being largely tolerant.

So, human, or great ape, victim-playing is likely a different story.