Blame

Why We Blame Others for Our Failures?

Have you ever found yourself pointing fingers at someone or something else when things didn’t go as planned? Perhaps you’ve blamed the market, the competition, or even your own team for a failed campaign. As marketers, understanding the psychology behind this blame game is crucial for connecting with our audience.

The Human Need to Blame: It’s a common human tendency to look for scapegoats when faced with failures. Instead of introspecting and identifying our own shortcomings, we find it easier to blame our old methods or external factors. This not only shields our self-esteem but also gives us a false assurance that our future endeavours will be successful, provided we avoid the blamed factor.

Shield of Blame

The Fundamental Attribution Error: One of the most intriguing cognitive biases in psychology is the Fundamental Attribution Error. It’s the tendency to blame an individual’s personality for their actions when things go wrong, but attribute our own failures to external situations.

For instance, if a competitor’s campaign fails, we might think, “They just don’t understand the market.” But if our campaign fails? “The market conditions were unfavourable.”

Understanding this bias is essential for marketers. It helps us empathize with our customers and it takes the weight of self-deprecation off from their shoulders by implying “It’s not their fault”.

Why do we do this?

It’s simple. Accepting our own mistakes is hard. It’s much easier to believe that a secret to success has either been hidden from us or we just haven’t stumbled upon it yet. This way, we can assure ourselves that it’s not our fault.

Imagine your audience being in a situation where no matter what they do, they can’t seem to win. It’s frustrating, right? At the same time they are overwhelmed due to the vast ocean of information available today. Here Instead of challenging their self esteem by making them responsible for their own education and growth, we label it as “information overload”. We deflect the blame from our audience and find a common enemy to fight with.

Recognizing the human tendency to blame external factors is crucial. By creating a common “enemy” or problem, we create a common ground to relate with each other.

While it’s essential to understand the psychology of blame, it’s equally important not to exploit it unethically.