blaming the victim

a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals or groups attempt to cope with the bad things that have happened to others by assigning blame to the victim of the trauma or tragedy. Victim blaming serves to create psychological distance between the blamer and the victim, may rationalize a failure to intervene if the blamer was a bystander, and creates a psychological defense for the blamer against feelings of vulnerability.

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Psychology term of the day

February 19th 2025

latent need

a need that is assumed to be present in a person and determines behavior but is not in that person’s conscious awareness.