Some people outsource malicious evil. They are not malicious themselves, but they delegate the harming to others. They are not directly cruel. But they are worse than cruel for this is very underhanded. They want to desensitize. And they will lose any sense of empathy. Typically, they let wrongdoing happen without lifting a hand.
Many think or feel they outsource. They project the evil intent they want to happen unto others. They feel pure. This can be psychological and/or magical. Maybe psychic or paranormal.
In some mystical or esoteric traditions, someone might think or sense they direct negative energy toward another through intention or thought, but use intermediaries (people, animals, or even objects) to carry it out. The harm manifests indirectly, while the originator stays “clean.”
This more often than not, is subconscious.
It is possible that rather than exercise direct malice, we all find ways to channel it, leaving it looking like something else. If we are truly not malicious, we will not be looking for disguises for malice or ways to channel it. We even target our malice at some enemies - taking it out on them rather than the enemies we want to hurt.
The cosmetic put on malice to beautify it and/or the projecting of it unto others for we want to think they will do the malicious things for us is universal. It may be more likely, or stronger, when we think there's a realm above nature. If we are naturalists, we dismiss miracle, magical and paranormal speculations. No religious believer claims to know what he is dealing with for belief is not complete knowledge. So part of them is - under the surface - open to the notion that say harmful prayers or malicious thoughts can mystically harm the person they hate. They indulge such ideas occasionally and deliberately. They indulge them subconsciously more than they will never realise.
Many of us subconsciously cooperate with evil not by committing it ourselves, but by containing it—allowing it to exist at a distance, mediated through others, systems, or circumstances. Outsourcing malice lets us feel morally clean while still participating in harm indirectly. In effect, we become enablers of wrongdoing, quietly maintaining it in a “safe” corner of reality. Prayer, good works, or acts of charity often arise as compensatory measures, an attempt to balance the ledger against the evil we tolerate or delegate. In this way, much of human morality is a negotiation: we contain and outsource what we cannot—or will not—directly confront, and then try to redeem ourselves for that very containment.
Many people devote themselves to prayer and good works, consciously or unconsciously as a way to counterbalance the malice they outsource or project onto others. In what might be called “Evil by Proxy,” individuals may avoid direct cruelty, yet allow harm to occur through intermediaries—people, circumstances, or even intentions—while maintaining the illusion of innocence. Acts of kindness, ritual, or devotion can function as a psychic or moral accounting, an attempt to cleanse themselves of the underhanded viciousness they release indirectly. Whether this compensation is effective or merely a placebo, it reflects a human desire to reconcile a sense of moral self with the darker impulses one refuses to confront directly.