collective blame
Shared guilt assignment
Collective blame is the attribution of guilt or responsibility to an entire group for the actions of some members.
It treats individuals as answerable for wrongs they didn't personally commit: The internment of Japanese Americans was collective blame codified into policy.
The concept often surfaces in discussions of ethnic conflict, historical grievances, and debates about institutional accountability versus individual guilt.
- scapegoatUnfairly blamed person
- guiltMoral self-reproach
- mobDisorderly, aggressive crowd
- mob mentalityCollective irrationality in groups
- shamePainful awareness of failure
scarlet letter · accusation · tribalism · cancel culture · persecution · witch hunt · blood libel · punishment · group punishment · complicity · groupthink · vendetta · stigma · outcast · tar and feather · bloodline · sins · ancestral
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