People curb death anxiety by identifying evil with out-groups via scapegoating.

Evidence

In this sense, we keep concerns with death buried beneath consciousness in part by finding what is evil, so we can heroically contribute to its abolishment. Unfortunately, ‘evil’ is most often identified in the form of another group (e.g., a different culture or minority) who is consequently pinpointed as the source of one’s deepest fears and problems – a process called scapegoating. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory, 55

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘scapegoating’ as the process of locating one’s death-driven fears in an external group.
• XREF: connects to: Humans deflect death anxiety onto cultural symbols, and defending those symbols produces real-world evil — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 25; Scapegoating rituals transferred communal death-anxiety onto a sacrificial other — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 508; People unaware of their death fears are nonetheless governed by layered psychological defenses — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 629 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Scapegoating rituals transferred communal death-anxiety onto a sacrificial other #corroborates (1.00) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 508
• Death concerns strengthen appeals to kill culturally designated evil groups. #expands (0.95) — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory, 68
• People unaware of their death fears are nonetheless governed by layered psychological defenses #expands (0.85) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 629
• Merely classifying people into outgroups triggers dehumanization that enables scapegoating #expands (0.85)
• Self-esteem buffers people against death-related anxiety. #qualifies (0.80) — Enny Das, Brad J. Bushman, Marieke D. Bezemer, Peter Kerkhof, Ivar E. Vermeulen, How Terrorism News Reports Increase…, 113
• Mortality threats drive group identification through perceived loss of control, not symbolic immortality. #complicates (0.80) — Immo Fritsche, Agency Through the We, 41
• Threatened identity and low collective self-esteem fuel out-group scapegoating. #qualifies (0.80) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 912
• Threatened group identity drives scapegoating and reassertion of superiority. #qualifies (0.80) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 824
• Scapegoating is a group-coordinated ideological phenomenon. #expands (0.80)
• Racial self-security through others’ death generates its own counter-insecurity #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 145