Cause Of Witchhunts

Gossip and 'witchhunting,' the historical phenomena of people targeting and punishing certain individuals within their community for perceived (often erroneous) crimes, is closely tied with gossip. Indeed, the two go hand in hand.

The connection itself is pretty clear and obvious, during a witch hunt, people are actively sought after for punishment for perceived crimes which either they didn't commit or the punishment for which is grossly unfair. More often than not the individuals targeted in this manner are social undesirables, which is really the gist of the argument here.

People who are low on the social ladder, or who are loners or removed from the social stream, often bear the worst gossip. Not only are they easy to gossip about because they are least likely to hear it, but they will probably have few or no friends to back them up.