Perpetrators of ideologically motivated aggression rationalize it by recasting victims as threats
Evidence
Additionally, once ideologically motivated aggression begins to take place, it creates the need to rationalize such behavior by believing that the victims somehow deserved their fate. Thus the processes by which perpetrators justify their actions (detailed in the next section) are also likely to involve complementary projection—believing that the victim was not innocent but a threat. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 833
Categorization
- QUESTION: Does victim-recast-as-threat reverse the competence signal — i.e. does the ‘wolf’s clothing’ imagery later extend to attributions of strength as well as evil? Worth chasing in the next section.
- XREF: connects to: Charismatic leaders exploit threat to create scapegoats and bring evil into being. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 59; Perceiving a group as powerful and malevolent rationalizes extreme violence as self-defense; Victim blaming displaces responsibility onto the target of attack. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1310 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Perceiving a group as powerful and malevolent rationalizes extreme violence as self-defense
#expands(0.95) - Perpetrators justify mass murder as defensive response to perceived existential threat
#expands(0.95) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 849 - Perpetrators excuse harm by displacing blame and dehumanizing victims
#expands(0.90) - Victim blaming displaces responsibility onto the target of attack.
#expands(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1310