Genocide is a top-down state-organized process, not a spontaneous outburst.

Evidence

Commitment to a scapegoat ideology (G) mediates the negative consequences of scapegoating. Although already resented due to prior envious stereotypes, hostility toward scapegoated groups (H) increases in direct proportion to prejudiced perceivers’ endorsement of an ideology that blames them for current shared misfortunes. Such ideologies (and increased hostility) cohere around political movements that act against the scapegoated group (I). Genocides, for example, are not spontaneous events, but top-down affairs, organized and ordered by a state. The perpetrators may be a mixture of ideologically-motivated true-believers (Goldhagen, 1997) and those who merely follow orders (Milgram, 1974). These motivations, however, may typically act in concert to produce a willing obedience to authority in which perpetrators’ acceptance of a scapegoat ideology and commitment to a political movement motivates zealous compliance with orders (and, for some, spontaneous sadistic acts that exceed those orders). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1606

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgram’s obedience research and Goldhagen’s ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’ thesis about ordinary Germans.