Klan-related articles surged during high societal threat periods

Evidence

1987, t(8)= 2.26, p<.05, a significant difference in accord with our predictions. Much of this difference is attributable to the 1979 political killings by Klan members in Greensboro, North Carolina, and their subsequent trial, although such a blatant display of violence is scarcely an extraneous “contamination,” but rather a striking instance of prejudice and aggression that (as predicted) occurred during a period of high societal threat. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 819

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the Greensboro massacre as an instance of organized racial violence; also connects to the sacrifice/ritual violence framing as group phenomenon.