Genocidal killing sprees are driven by blaming an outgroup for one’s own misfortunes.

Evidence

A decade before Allport wrote The Nature of Prejudice, the Nazis had attempted to exterminate Europe’s Jews, whom they blamed for Germany’s woes. A decade before this chapter was written, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were murdered by Hutu neighbors, who blamed the Tutsi for Rwanda’s economic and social problems. Both are examples of scapegoating, here defined as an extreme form of prejudice in which an outgroup is unfairly blamed for having intentionally caused an ingroup’s misfortunes. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1558

Categorization

• DEFINE: The chapter’s operative definition of scapegoating: an outgroup unfairly blamed for intentionally causing an ingroup’s misfortunes.
• XREF: Pairs the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide as parallel scapegoating cases — resonates with existing vault material on group-based threat driving prejudice. — connects to: Collective blame drives vicarious retribution spirals that escalate intergroup conflict. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 351