By Ashley Crossman

Updated on August 02, 2019

Scapegoating refers to a process by which a person or group is unfairly blamed for something
that they didn't do and, as a result, the real source of the problem is either never seen or
purposefully ignored. Sociologists have documented that scapegoating often occurs between
groups when a society is plagued by long-term economic problems or when resources are scarce.
Scapegoat theory is used in sociology and psychology as one way to intercept conflict and
prejudice between individuals and groups. In the modern era, psychologists describe
scapegoating as a defense mechanism, an unconscious coping strategy, Stewart said. Those who
scapegoat are aware of their negativity and blaming. Unconsciously, though, scapegoating often
reflects feelings about ourselves that make us deeply uncomfortable, whether they stem from
struggling financially, failing at relationships, or being terrified of loss of control, illness or
death.
“There are things that we cannot bear to see about ourselves,” Stewart said. “ ‘I really don’t want
to be seen as vulnerable or stupid or weak or greedy.’ ” Instead of addressing these intolerable
parts of ourselves, we project our negative traits onto others, she said
History:  Additionally, some historians believe that scapegoating was a major factor in the Holocaust.
After World War I, Germany was decimated, and Adolf Hitler rose to power by promising to make
Germany strong again, blaming Jewish people for a host of social ills.

Origins of the Term

The origins of the term “scapegoat” lie in the Old Testament: In Leviticus, the Israelites ritually
placed all of their sins onto the head of a living goat, which was sent into the wilderness to carry
the people’s transgressions to a desolate land.
The term scapegoat has Biblical origins, coming from the Book of Leviticus. In the book, a goat
was sent into the desert carrying the sins of the community. So, a scapegoat was originally
understood as a person or animal that symbolically absorbed the sins of others and carried them
away from those who committed them.

Scapegoats and Scapegoating in Sociology

Sociologists recognize four different ways in which scapegoating takes place and scapegoats are
created.

Scapegoating can be a one-on-one phenomenon, in which one person blames another for
something he/she or someone else did. This form of scapegoating is common among children,
who blame a sibling or a friend for something they did, to avoid the shame of disappointing their
parents and the punishment that might follow a misdeed.
Scapegoating also occurs in a one-on-group manner, when one person blames a group for a
problem they did not cause: wars, deaths, financial losses of one kind or another, and other
personal struggles. This form of scapegoating may sometimes be unfairly blamed on racial,
ethnic, religious, class, or anti-immigrant biases.
Sometimes scapegoating takes a group-on-one form, when a group of people singles out and
blames one person for a problem. For example, when the members of a sports team blame a
player who made a mistake for the loss of a match, though other aspects of play also affected the
outcome. Or, when someone who alleges an assault is then scapegoated by members of the
community for "causing trouble" or "ruining" the life of the attacker.
Finally, and of most interest to sociologists, is the form of scapegoating that is "group-on-
group." This occurs when one group blames another for problems that the groups collectively
experience, which might be economic or political in nature—like blaming a particular party for
the Great Depression (1929-1939) or the Great Recession (2007-2009). This form of
scapegoating often manifests across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.
The Scapegoat Theory of Intergroup Conflict
Scapegoating of one group by another has been used throughout history, and still today, as a way
to incorrectly explain why certain social, economic, or political problems exist and harm the
group doing the scapegoating. Some sociologists say that their research shows that groups that
scapegoat occupy a low socio-economic status in society and have little access to wealth and
power. They say these people are often experiencing prolonged economic insecurity or poverty,
and come to adopt shared outlooks and beliefs that have been documented to lead to prejudice
and violence.

Sociologists who embrace socialism as a political and economic theory argue that those in a low
socioeconomic status are naturally inclined to scapegoat due to the unequal distribution of
resources within the society. These sociologists place blame on capitalism as an economic model
and exploitation of workers by a wealthy minority. However, these are not the viewpoints of all
sociologists. As with any science involving theories, study, research, and conclusions—it's not an
exact science, and therefore there will be a variety of viewpoints.

Daily life example:

History teaches us that the scapegoating of immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants is
nothing new. Immigrants have been similarly blamed for infectious diseases throughout our
history, according to Professor Alan Kraut: Irish immigrants were blamed for cholera outbreaks
in the 1830s, Jewish immigrants for tuberculosis in the late 19th century, and Italian immigrants
for polio in the early 20th century. In 1900, fears of the bubonic plague in San Francisco spurred
calls for Chinatown to be burned to the ground and, horrifically, public health officials forcibly
seized Chinese residents on the streets and injected them with an experimental vaccine.
Physicians and medical historians also note that even though immigrants historically have not in
fact been responsible for “importing” contagion, ethnic communities in the U.S. have still been
characterized as “dirty” and blamed for spreading disease. This type of xenophobic and racist
scapegoating can have fatal consequences.

Even when people of color are not themselves physically injured, racist scapegoating can leave
an indelible mark. In 1982, a Chinese American named Vincent Chin was beaten to death by two
white autoworkers in a Detroit suburb. His attackers believed he was responsible for the loss of
jobs in the U.S. auto industry based upon his perceived identity. One of Chin’s killers, Ronald
Ebens, began the attack by crying out, “It’s because of you little motherfuckers that we’re out of
work!” I was only eleven years old when Vincent Chin was murdered, and his death has stayed
with me ever since. Chin’s death by racism shook my childhood sense of safety and belonging in
my own country. Violence spurred by yesterday’s fears of lost jobs or past pandemics are today’s
COVID-19 crisis — a way for people to vent their fears and rage, and place the blame on
someone they can turn into a foreigner, a nobody, a thing less than human.