The concept of inherent evilness is psychologically puzzling because it adds senseless terror

Evidence

What are the psychological functions served by the view of evil that these exceptions serve to defend, the notion that behind evil actions lie evil-doers who can be identified as possessing an inherent and inward evilness? At first glance it seems to add an unnecessary component of terror to a world that is not short on other experiences of terror. Why do we imagine a world inhabited by evil-doers who could, for rationally unfathomable reasons, inflict horrors on ourselves and those we love, essentially at random? — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3889

Categorization

• QUESTION: The author poses this as the puzzle the chapter solves; worth tracking how the analysis lands.