Scapegoat movements exploit frustrated needs for esteem, belonging, and security.

Evidence

As Staub (1989) has noted, difficult times heighten needs for security and physical well-being, for selfand group esteem, to believe that life is controllable and predictable, and to have hope for the future. Pyszczynski et al. (1999) add psychological defense against mortality salience to this list. Scapegoat movements address frustrated needs for esteem, belonging, and transcendence by reasserting the ingroup’s superiority and offering membership in a wider social movement that promises symbolic immortality. Security, physical well-being, and hope are addressed by identifying and combating the “enemy” that has putatively caused the ingroup’s misfortunes. The Nazis, for example, were masterful at creating a sense of belonging (everyone, children included, could belong to a subgroup, e.g., the Hitler Youth), group esteem and transcendence (through pageantry and an ideology of racial superiority), and optimism (through economic progress spurred by re-armament). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1598 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Scapegoating conspiracism assigns hated groups responsibility for national troubles. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 139; Scapegoating requires large shared frustrations plus a blaming ideology. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 794; Instigators rise by offering hope in crises that relies on scapegoating. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 1704 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Hardship-driven need frustration is what scapegoat movements exploit. #expands (0.95) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1598