Predicting Lynching Atrocity: The Situational Norms of Lynchings in Georgia

Abstract

From 1882 to 1926, lynch mobs in Georgia killed 514 victims in 410 separate events. Based on a new comprehensive dataset, this study examined characteristics of the mobs related to the level of the atrocity of the violence in the lynchings. Consistent with prior research, the size of the crowd was a stable predictor of level of atrocity. However, in contrast to two prior studies, results did not uniformly support the self-attention perspective. Instead, the findings were more consistent with the concept that situational norms were the important mechanism behind collective violence, particularly because the violence used in a lynching event reflected the violence used in nearby lynchings. These results suggest that, rather than losing all norms of behavior through a process of deindividuation, lynchers adopted norms they viewed as appropriate for the situation.

For the good of the party, for the good of the nation: ingroup projection can motivate support for political violence

“…Yet, understanding the processes that lead people to endorse political violence even while they are unwilling or unlikely to participate in it themselves is equally important. Ingroup support for intergroup violence is likely to increase its occurrence (Jetten et al, 1996;de la Roche, 2001;Crandall et al, 2002;Hayes and McAllister, 2005;Waldmann, 2005;Ritchey and Ruback, 2018). Additionally, the psychological processes involved in endorsing vs. engaging in political violence may not always be the same.…”