Economic downturns historically correlated with increases in lynchings of Black Americans

Evidence

Microstudies in the Dollard et al. volume systematically manipulated the frustration levels of individual rats and then measured these rats’ aggressiveness toward available targets not associated with their frustration; the volume’s macrostudies (Hovland & Sears, 1939) correlated annual fluctuations in U.S. economic frustration (measured by gross national product or price of cotton) with annual scapegoating scores (measured by yearly numbers of lynchings in the United States). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 349

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general literature on scapegoating and economic threat — echoes of frustration-aggression theory in current political psychology and hate-crime research. — connects to: Over 4,400 verified lynchings of African Americans occurred between 1877 and 1950 — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 568
• CANDY: A striking fact — a direct statistical link between cotton prices and lynchings — perfect dinner-table material.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing whether the Hovland & Sears correlations have been re-examined or critiqued since 1939.