In the laboratory

>Laboratory research has found that even short-term rejection from strangers can have powerful (if temporary) effects on an individual. In several social psychology experiments, people chosen at random to receive messages of social exclusion became more aggressive, more willing to cheat, less willing to help others, and more likely to pursue short-term over long-term goals. Rejection appears to lead very rapidly to self-defeating and antisocial behavior.

>Researchers have also investigated how the brain responds to social rejection. One study found that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is active when people are experiencing both physical pain and "social pain", in response to social rejection. A subsequent experiment, also using fMRI neuroimaging, found that three regions become active when people are exposed to images depicting rejection themes. These areas are the posterior cingulate cortex, the parahippocampal gyrus, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, individuals who are high in rejection sensitivity show less activity in the left prefrontal cortex and the right dorsal superior frontal gyrus, which may indicate less ability to regulate emotional responses to rejection.

>A study at Miami University indicated that individuals who recently experienced social rejection were better than both accepted and control participants in their ability to discriminate between genuine and fake smiles. Though both accepted and control participants were better than chance (they did not differ from each other), rejected participants were much better at this task, nearing 80% accuracy. This study is noteworthy in that it is one of the few cases of a positive or adaptive consequence of social rejection.

Ball toss / cyberball experiments

>A common experimental technique is the "ball toss" paradigm, which was developed by Kipling Williams and his colleagues at Purdue University. This procedure involves a group of three people tossing a ball back and forth. Unbeknownst to the actual participant, two members of the group are working for the experimenter and following a pre-arranged script. In a typical experiment, half of the subjects will be excluded from the activity after a few tosses and never get the ball again. Only a few minutes of this treatment are sufficient to produce negative emotions in the target, including anger and sadness. This effect occurs regardless of self-esteem and other personality differences.

>Gender differences have been found in these experiments. In one study, women showed greater nonverbal engagement whereas men disengaged faster and showed face-saving techniques, such as pretending to be uninterested. The researchers concluded that women seek to regain a sense of belonging whereas men are more interested in regaining self-esteem.

>Instances of sexual violence against transgender women happen for the first time at the median age of 15 years old. The notion that transgender youth are more likely to experience acts of sexual violence has been verified by several other studies.

Physical violence

>A study of transgender individuals in Virginia, published in 2007, found that 40% of those interviewed had experienced an instance of physical violence. Around 69% of such attacks were, according to interviewees, due to their gender identity. The assaults occurred at a median age of 16 and were reported as early as 13 years old. Of those participants who reported at least one assault, at least 12% said they had experienced over 20 instances of physical violence in their lifetime

>A study published in 2021 by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that transgender people in the United States are more likely to be violently attacked than cisgender people. The study found 86.1 attacks for every 1,000 transgender women and 23.7 attacks for every 1,000 cisgender women; it also found 107.5 attacks for every 1,000 transgender men and 19.8 attacks for every 1,000 cisgender men.

>Transgender women who are sex workers experience a disproportionately higher level of violence in the United States. A study of transgender female sex workers conducted in Washington, D.C., found that approximately 65% of those interviewed reported an instance of physical assault, most often by their customers.

>After being followed for some time, the three were abducted by the group, brought to a secluded location, and shot and killed. They were then buried in an earthen dam.

>The murder of the activists sparked national outrage and an extensive federal investigation. In 1967, after the state government refused to prosecute those involved in the murders, the United States federal government stepped in and charged 18 individuals with civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and another pleaded guilty, and all received relatively minimal sentences. Outrage over the activists' murder helped pass of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Forty-one years after the murders took place, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged by the state of Mississippi for his part in the crimes, and in 2005 was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was given a 60-year sentence. On June 20, 2016, federal and state authorities officially closed the case. Killen died in prison in January 2018.

>According to the official report, 38 were killed and 146 wounded, of whom 34 dead and 119 wounded were Black freedmen. Unofficial estimates were higher. Gilles Vandal estimated 40 to 50 Black Americans were killed and more than 150 Black Americans wounded. Others have claimed nearly 200 were killed. In addition, three white convention attendees were killed, as was one white protester.

>The massacre expressed conflicts deeply rooted in the social structure of Louisiana. The New Orleans massacre was a continuation of a longer shooting war over slavery (beginning with Bleeding Kansas in 1859), of which the 1861–1865 hostilities were merely the largest part.  More than half of the whites were Confederate veterans, and nearly half of the Black Americans were veterans of the Union army. The riots catalyzed support for the Fourteenth Amendment, extending suffrage and full citizenship to freedmen, and the Reconstruction Acts to establish military districts for the national government to oversee areas of the South and work to change their social arrangements.

Massacre

>"The whites stomped, kicked, and clubbed the black marchers mercilessly. Policemen smashed the institute’s windows and fired into it indiscriminately until the floor grew slick with blood. They emptied their revolvers on the convention delegates, who desperately sought to escape. Some leaped from windows and were shot dead when they landed. Those lying wounded on the ground were stabbed repeatedly, their skulls bashed in with brickbats. The sadism was so wanton that men who kneeled and prayed for mercy were killed instantly, while dead bodies were stabbed and mutilated."

>— Ron Chernow, "Grant" (2017)

>Seven of the victims were black, while one was Indian.

Perpetrator

Bolding mine for emphasis:

>Barend Hendrik Strydom was born in Weenen, Natal, South Africa, in 1965. Strydom's mother killed herself at the age of 23, when he was 18 months old. At the time of the suicide, she was alone with Strydom, who was found with blue strangulation marks on his neck. Strydom was told she died in a revolver accident, which he believed until after the shooting. He had been a member of extremist right wing organizations since the age of 16, and was encouraged in his views by his father. Strydom viewed black people as animals. He joined the South African Police, but was dismissed after photographing himself holding a knife and the severed head of a black motorist at the scene of an automobile accident.

>A week prior to the shooting, on 8 November 1988, he had gone to a black squatter camp and shot and killed a black woman, injuring another, in what he called a "practice run" for the shooting. After the attack, Strydom claimed he was a member of a group called the White Wolves (Afrikaans: Wit Wolwe), but this was later dismissed as a fictitious organization invented by Strydom. Other sources claimed the Wit Wolwe were a real group, which had started in the 1970s. Strydom also said that he had meditated and prayed a number of days before the attack and said that God had not given him any sign not to carry out the attack.

Shooting

>On 15 November 1988 Strydom, age 23, dressed in camouflage and carrying a 9mm Vektor pistol, two magazines, and 200 loose bullets, travelled to central Pretoria. At about 3 p.m., Strydom parked his car on Prinsloo Street and walked to Strijdom Square, chosen as a location due to its namesake. Once at the square he opened fire at random at any black person he saw. He shot one man outside the State Theatre, before crossing Church Street and headed back towards Prinsloo street. On the corner of Church Street and Prinsloo street he shot an additional two people.

>He walked three more blocks, shooting people all the while, before turning down Struben Street and entering the Sato Engineering building. Once inside he walked over to a counter and began to reload his gun. The shooting ended when a black taxi driver, Simon Mukondoleli, followed him into Sato Engineering, and tapped Strydom on the shoulder. Once Strydom turned around, Mukondoleli grabbed Strydom's pistol from the counter and pointed it at him. Strydom raised his hands and said "You've got me." Both men then walked back out into the street, where Strydom was then arrested by several policemen.

>Strydom smiled throughout the shooting. Eight people were killed and 16 were injured in the aftermath. One of the wounded victims was paralyzed from the waist down. Seven of the victims were black, while one was Indian.

Aftermath

>After his arrest, Strydom said he felt nothing for the victims. He claimed he committed the shooting because he wanted to start a race war and that his actions were necessary for the survival of his people. He told the police he was sorry he had not killed more.

Legal proceedings

>Strydom made jokes and laughed in court, joking that he shot one of his victims because she "used up oxygen". During the proceedings, two psychologists and a psychiatrist testified that Strydom was "eccentric but not insane" and knew what he was doing. Strydom showed no remorse for his actions during the proceedings and claimed that he acted according to the will of God. When asked how an elderly woman could threaten him, he stated "She threatened my existence because she was black and because she was alive".

>His legal defense was that he had committed justifiable homicide. During his trial Strydom became a "cult figure" to the extreme right wing in South Africa. On 25 May 1989, Strydom was sentenced to 30 years for attempted murder and was sentenced to death on the murder charges, to be carried out by hanging. The presiding judge stated Strydom's actions were "worse than those of terrorists", as he had laughed in the faces of his victims while shooting them instead of leaving bombs. Strydom's defense attorney stated he would appeal his sentence.

>In 1990, the government declared a moratorium on capital punishment. In 1992, he was released from prison by President F. W. de Klerk as one of 150 political prisoners, part of an attempt to reduce white South African criticism of de Klerk's concessions to the ANC. On the day Strydom was released, 29 September 1992, unknown persons poured a large quantity of red dye into the Strijdom Square fountain. At the time it was unknown if the action was done by people in support of or against Strydom's actions though responsibility was later taken by artist Jacques Coetzer.

>He was then granted amnesty in 1994 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the grounds that his attack was politically motivated. The ANC condemned the release of Strydom. His release was controversial, as was that of Robert McBride, a black man who had killed whites. Strydom stated after his release that he would do it again "if necessary". De Klerk stated he viewed the crimes of both McBride and Strydom as "atrocious", but that their release was to help black-white political negotiations move forward.

>Members of 764 frequently adopt the corresponding symbolism but are primarily described as being motivated by sadism.

Bolding mine for emphasis:

History

>764 was founded in 2021 by Bradley Chance Cadenhead. At the age of 15, school dropout Cadenhead (alias: "Felix") learned techniques of exploiting minors and sextortion on a Discord server named CVLT and subsequently founded 764. In the online game Minecraft, Cadenhead met an unknown person who assisted him in establishing 764. The 764 network is primarily active on Discord and Telegram, and to some extent on the gaming platforms Roblox and Minecraft. It is also publicly active on online forums. Its members are involved in systematic sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of minors through sextortion and other practices and in distributing child pornography and depictions of violence. Victims are selected from the 9- to 17-year-old age group, with a preference for children from marginalized backgrounds or with mental health issues.

>Cadenhead was bullied during his school years. A classmate called him an "easy target". In his early teens, Cadenhead suffered multiple psychological breakdowns and was isolated. He told probation officers that he stopped caring about anything and, after dropping out of school at 15, withdrew to his room. He founded the 764 online network and named it after the first three digits of the ZIP Code of his hometown, Stephenville, Texas. Cadenhead had been noticeably disruptive as a student. At age ten, he was fascinated by graphic online content depicting murder and torture. His assistant principal alerted authorities about Cadenhead, leading to an investigation into terrorist threats. Despite disciplinary measures, Cadenhead continued to use school computers to draw images of school shootings.

>Cadenhead extorted minors through sextortion or coerced them by threatening actions such as swatting attacks. He forced his victims, among other things, to produce child pornography, engage in animal cruelty, and to engage in self-harm. Cadenhead's Discord accounts were typically banned within about a day, but he repeatedly created new ones. A Discord Inc. spokesperson told The Washington Post that the company's moderation system primarily relied on user reports. When Discord learned of their illegal activities, it banned Cadenhead's accounts. Out of concern about retaliatory actions by 764 members, the spokesperson requested anonymity. After a house search on August 25, 2021, Cadenhead was arrested, and on May 16, 2023, he was convicted of possessing child pornographic files. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison and is currently imprisoned in the Estelle Unit in Huntsville, Texas.

>Cadenhead's behavioral therapist said during the trial that Cadenhead needed psychological treatment rather than imprisonment. After reviewing video evidence from Cadenhead's computer and listing the seven deadly sins, the presiding judge, Jason Cashon, addressed Cadenhead directly, saying, "There is something horribly wrong with you [...] Horribly."

Incidents

>According to Der Spiegel, 764-related arrests have been made for child pornography, kidnapping and murder in at least eight countries, including two men in Germany. The FBI estimates that thousands of children have been victims of 764 and similar groups.

2021

>A 22-year-old member of CVLT, Kaleb Christopher Merritt of Spring, Texas, kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old girl in Virginia, United States. He was convicted and sentenced to 350 years in prison. Cadenhead's splinter group also leveraged animal torture, incest, rape, self-harm, and bestiality from their victims.

>An American man who was stranded in Kyrgyzstan died by self-immolation for an audience on Discord. He had been encouraged to broadcast his suicide by a 15-year-old Eastern European girl he met online who herself had links to 764.

2023

>17-year-old Nino Luciano H., known as "Tobbz", livestreamed himself attacking an 82-year-old man in March 2022, and two weeks later he livestreamed his fatal stabbing of a 74-year-old woman, whom he believed to be Roma, on a 764-affiliated Discord server. This was allegedly so he could "prove himself" as a member of the "Maniac Murder Cult" (MKU). He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in August 2023.

2024

>Cameron Finnigan, a 19-year-old from Horsham, UK, known as "Acid", was arrested, and in January 2025 pled guilty to encouraging suicide, possessing a terrorism manual, and possessing indecent images of a child. Finnigan was subsequently sentenced to six years in jail. At the time of sentencing, the BBC reported that at least four British teenagers had been arrested in connection with the activities of the group, which has blackmailed children into carrying out sexual acts, harming themselves, or attempting suicide.

2025

>The Antioch school shooter, Solomon Henderson, made references to 764 and similar groups in social media posts before the attack.

>López was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He moved to Lawrenceville, Georgia, United States, with his family at a young age, and began working as a pest exterminator. He had poor self-esteem, was socially reclusive, and eventually developed an obsession with Björk in 1993. Though he did not hope to be sexually intimate with her, he was particularly angry over her brief relationship with the English jungle producer Goldie due to his Afro-British ethnicity. Over the course of nearly nine months in 1996, he made video diaries about her and other topics, at his apartment in Hollywood, Florida.

>On September 12, 1996, López mailed a letter bomb, rigged with sulfuric acid, to Björk's residence in London. He recorded a final video diary explaining his motivations, and ended it by filming his suicide by gunshot. Local police found his body and the videos four days after his death and contacted Scotland Yard, who located the bomb in a London postal sorting office. The parcel was safely detonated and Björk was unharmed.

Israel and Palestine

>Prior to the Gaza Freedom March, Code Pink endorsed the "Cairo Declaration to End Israeli Apartheid", which calls for comprehensive boycott of Israel. During the march, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin coordinated the organization's stay with Hamas. Members resided in the Commodore, a Hamas-owned hotel in Gaza City. Hamas security officials accompanied activists as they visited Palestinian homes and Gaza-based NGOs. Prior to the march, Benjamin said the Hamas government had "pledged to ensure our safety". However, Code Pink leaders claimed Hamas had hijacked the initiative from the onset after imposing prohibitions on the organization's movements around Gaza. Amira Hass referred to the event as "an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators".

Russian invasion of Ukraine

>In February 2023, Code Pink activists confronted United States President Joe Biden in a Washington, D.C. restaurant, "call[ing] for Biden to seek peace and an end to the war rather than escalation before being asked to leave by the establishment's staff".

>Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene praised the protesters, writing, "We don't agree on most things, but we do agree Congress should STOP fueling the war in Ukraine!"

China

>Jodie Evans was once critical of China's authoritarian government. In 2015 she wrote: "We demand China stop brutal repression of their women's human rights defenders" In 2021, Evans described the Uyghurs as terrorists and defended China's mass internment of them. In August 2023, The New York Times wrote that Evans is now a strong supporter of China and she regards it as a defender of the oppressed and a model for economic growth without slavery or war.

>A third man, Ian Grillot, was wounded after he came to the two men's aid. Several hours later, Purinton was arrested in Clinton, Missouri.

Incident

>According to witness accounts, the incident, at Austin's Bar and Grill at Mur-Len Shop on 151st St. and Mur-Len Rd., began as patrons were watching a basketball game; a man started yelling racial slurs at the victims, asking them whether their "status was legal". The man had been escorted from the premises after he was confronted by restaurant staff and other guests, but returned later with a gun and began firing. He reportedly told the two targeted victims—South Indian men who work for Garmin, a technology firm—to "get out of my country" before firing. Ian Grillot, a 24-year-old white American, was shot and suffered multiple bullet wounds as he came to the victims' aid.

>The suspect, Adam Purinton, was arrested while drinking at a restaurant bar in Clinton, Missouri, about 82 miles (132 km) away. He had attracted the barman's attention by saying he needed a place to hide because he had just killed one Middle Eastern man and injured another.

The perpetrator

>Adam Purinton (born May 21, 1965), age 51, was arrested for the killing. After fleeing the bar, he was pursued by police in the Kansas City area who also went to his home. He eluded them, but was arrested after he was said to have admitted to "killing two Middle Eastern men" at a bar to which he had fled, 82 miles from the scene of the crimes. Purinton was said to have been a drinker whose alcohol consumption increased and whose behavior rapidly deteriorated after his father died from pancreatic cancer, 18 months before the crimes. Prior to his arrest, he had recently held a series of unskilled jobs including in hardware and liquor stores and as a dishwasher in a pizza parlor. He is a United States Navy veteran, had been an air traffic controller, and previously worked in information technology.