Why Groups Blame One Person: Understanding Scapegoating

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Why Groups Blame One Person: Understanding Scapegoating

A crowd turning against one individual, illustrating scapegoating and group behaviour dynamics.


(or a Dominant Group Turns on a Minority)

It rarely begins with anger.

More often than not, it begins with uncertainty.

Something is not quite right. A situation feels unsettled. People sense that things are changing, but no one can yet say exactly why. Conversations begin to circle around the same questions, and gradually a shared unease takes shape.

In moments like these, groups begin to look for clarity.

And very often, that search leads to a person or a smaller group who can carry the weight of what no one fully understands.

The Need for Explanation

Human beings are not comfortable with uncertainty.

When something goes wrong, we instinctively ask:

  • Who is responsible?
  • Where did this begin?
  • How do we fix it?

But real situations are often complex. Causes are rarely simple. Responsibility is often shared.

In such moments, a group may begin to simplify the problem.

Instead of holding the tension of complexity, it becomes easier to focus on a single individual — or a clearly identifiable group.

The story becomes clearer:

“This is happening because of them.”

When the Many Turn Toward the One

There is a quiet shift as a group begins to move in this direction.

Small observations are repeated.
Concerns are shared and reinforced.
The same name begins to appear in different conversations.

Over time, the group’s attention narrows.

What was once a situation becomes a person.

And once that happens, the momentum can be difficult to reverse.

The individual may find themselves carrying far more than their own actions — becoming, in effect, the place where the group’s anxiety settles.

When a Majority Turns on a Minority

The same pattern can unfold on a larger scale.

When a dominant group within a community or society feels under pressure — economically, culturally, or politically — the search for explanation can turn toward a minority.

The minority may be:

  • culturally different
  • less powerful
  • less able to respond
  • already standing slightly outside the centre of the group

In such cases, the narrative can shift quickly:

“They are the problem.”

This can happen subtly at first — through language, assumptions, or repeated ideas — before becoming more visible in attitudes and actions.

A Pattern Observed

The French thinker René Girard recognised this as a recurring pattern in human communities. In what is often called the Scapegoat Theory, he described how groups under pressure often move toward unity by directing their tensions onto a single person or group.

What is striking is that this process often feels justified from within the group.

Those involved do not usually believe they are acting unfairly.

They believe they are identifying the problem.

Why This Happens

Several forces are at work in these moments:

1. The Desire for Order

Uncertainty is uncomfortable. Assigning blame creates a sense of control.

2. Shared Reinforcement

As people repeat the same idea, it begins to feel true — not because it has been examined, but because it has been shared.

3. Emotional Relief

Once blame is focused, the group experiences a kind of release. The tension has somewhere to go.

4. Distance

It is easier to place blame on someone who is already perceived as “other” — whether slightly different, or clearly outside the group.

The Cost

While scapegoating may bring temporary relief, it comes at a cost.

The individual — or minority — may carry:

  • misunderstanding
  • exclusion
  • or even hostility

Meanwhile, the deeper causes of the problem often remain unresolved.

The group may feel united for a time, but the underlying tensions have not truly been addressed.

A Personal Observation

I first became aware of this pattern in a small farming community, long before I had the language to describe it. A quiet shift in atmosphere led people to begin searching for someone to blame.

At the time, I simply observed it.

Only later did I realise how easily that situation could have turned toward the wrong person — and how closely it reflected a much wider human tendency.

I explore that moment more fully here:

👉 Scapegoats, Suspicion, and Truth

A Final Reflection

Understanding this pattern does not mean denying that people can be responsible for their actions.

But it may help us pause before joining a collective movement toward blame.

It invites a different set of questions:

  • What pressures are shaping this situation?
  • What fears are at work beneath the surface?
  • Are we seeing clearly, or simply agreeing with one another?

Because sometimes the most important question is not:

“Who is at fault?”

But:

“Why do we need someone to be?”

The moment a group becomes certain it has found the one to blame may be the very moment it stops seeing the truth.

Some lives unfold between worlds, learning the language of both - I grew up in South Africa in a world far more complex than the one many people think they know. My life unfolded between cultures — from farms in the old Transvaal Province to KwaZulu-Natal, where I became fluent in Zulu, to working in townships around Durban during turbulent years and subsequently in a rural district in ministry during the final decade before South Africa’s democratic transition. Running quietly through those years was a journey of faith that eventually carried me far from Africa. What began as a five-year stay in the United Kingdom became an unintended exile, and today I live on the west coast of Scotland. My memoir, From My Tribe to Yours, is a personal letter across cultures — sharing the South Africa I experienced, that few in Western countries knew, from within. READ MORE:https://www.theafricanoddity.com/author-south-africa-memoir.html

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