Frustrated aggression toward authority gets redirected onto marginalized groups

Evidence

With the psychoanalytic concept of displacement we can make the connection to prejudice. Parental discipline frustrates the child and the frustration creates aggression. This aggression cannot be directed against its legitimate target, that would be insurrection against parental authority, and so the aggression is displaced to a less dangerous target— minority groups. Jews and Negroes and “Okies” and foreigners are inviting targets for displaced aggression because of historical circumstances that have caused them to be underprivileged and to have well-established bad reputations. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 562

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard et al.) and to scapegoat theory in social psychology. — connects to: Klan redirected farmers’ economic fury into socially acceptable aggression — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1746; Group violence against subgroups grows from frustrated basic human needs seeking fulfillment — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 79