lowering the bar
Making things easier
Lowering the bar means reducing standards or expectations, making something easier to achieve or accept.
The image comes from high jump or pole vault—literally setting the bar at a lesser height.
Usually carries disapproval: They're lowering the bar for admission suggests declining quality.
But sometimes practical: We lowered the bar for the kids' race.
- mediocrityQuality of being average
- participation trophyAward for mere involvement
- moral hazardConsequence-free risk-taking incentive
- permissivenessTolerance of behavior others forbid
- benchmarkStandard for comparison
deregulation · resignation · learned helplessness · threshold · normalization · baseline · complacency · cost-cutting · bare minimum · good enough · settling for less · cutting corners · erosion · rationalization · grade inflation · dumbing down · criterion · moving goalposts