What’s behind the people who blame everything?

There are those who seem to live with an eternal allergic reaction. Everything stings him, everything bothers him and makes him angry. Are those people who need to blame everything, because in their eyes nothing seems to go well, the entire universe has conspired to go against them and they have become accustomed to speaking the language of constant reproach and accusation. If you have found someone like this, be patient, because this personality profile abounds in the world.

However, What is behind this behavior? As we well know, sometimes it is easier to limit ourselves to criticizing behavior without knowing or investigating its motivations. We are all clear that they exhaust us, we know that constant complaining and accusations are exhausting and that the easiest way out in these cases is to distance ourselves, and the more the better.

However, it is not always possible for us. Because that irritating person may be part of your family.. It is possible that you have a co-worker who has a doctorate in creating a bad environment through criticism or that you have a friend who sees everything in a bad light. Even more… You may even identify with this tendency, that of feeling that nothing around you is going as it should.

Feeling that we must look for blame for many of the things that happen to us is a fairly common type of reaction. Let’s find out why.

Why are there people who need to blame everything?

It is often said that an optimist sees the glass half full, the pessimist sees it empty, and those who complain about everything will blame us for giving them a dirty glass on purpose. As we can imagine, adopting these types of customs indicates that something is happening. It is not normal for a person to limit themselves to seeing the dark side of life.and also, look for those responsible for each of your unfortunate circumstances.

What does the psychological x-ray of the eternal culprit seeker tell us? The first thing it reveals to us is the lack of responsibility. It is always easier to put the blame for what happened on other people’s shoulders instead of taking it on yourself. If I have failed the exam it is because the teacher has a thing for me and not because I haven’t studied. If my partner has left me it is because someone has convinced him to do so and not because he no longer loves me.

The art of throwing things out, of looking for culprits where there are none is something very human. So much so that we see it from children to grown adults who continue to look for scapegoats for everything that happens or bothers them.

We are basically faced with a defensive mechanism that the brain itself deploys.. People who need to blame everything and take responsibility for nothing use sophisticated cognitive biases and clearly immature approaches. We analyze them below.

The Adamic syndrome

Adamic syndrome does not describe any pathological behavior. It is another way of labeling a behavior that is frequently seen. In this case it defines those people who blame others in order to get out of any situation unscathed. This term, “Adamic”, is defined this way because it takes its roots in Genesis with Adam and Eve.

After disobeying the rules imposed by God and eating the forbidden fruit, Adam blames what happened on his creator: After all, you gave me the woman as a companion and she gave me the fruit from the tree. I then ate it. For her part, Eva is not far behind either: she does not hesitate to blame a third protagonist: the snake.

This metaphor describes something really common: our ability to avoid responsibilities.

The counterfactual simulation

Behind this convoluted term lies a curious explanation as to why there are people who need to find blame for everything. It was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who related this tendency to what they called counterfactual simulation.

It consists of When something happens to us, our mind, far from seeing what could have happened and what responsibility we have for what happened, looks for other possibilities. We do it starting from the classic “and yes…” (what if they didn’t approve my project because someone bribed them? What if I didn’t get that promotion because someone blocked it?

The mind, instead of assuming its own responsibility, begins to evaluate possible scenarios and simulate possibilities that end up integrating as part of the facts, even if they sound bizarre. Doing so generates less suffering than assuming our role in these events.

We understand reality as a cause-effect

People have a unique tendency. It is the one in which We think that everything happens for a reason, that there is a linearity in each event. Now, in that equation there is not always the variable “I”. For example, if my partner is increasingly apathetic it is because he has a problem at work or because his parents are overwhelming him.

In this cause and effect, the culprit finder never considers the possibility that he or she is within that rule of three.

Mental biases that protect us and make us blind

If we ask ourselves why there are people who need to blame everything, the basis of everything is found in those cognitive biases that often turn us into blind beings. In creatures who refuse to admit with all their strength what is evident.

Let’s think, for example, of that manager who describes his workers as lazy because they don’t produce enough.. He does not hesitate to blame them for the bad numbers without taking into account the conditions in which those employees carry out their work.

People who need to find blame for everything and eternal victimhood

Chronic victimhood is often found behind the need to blame almost everything.. They are profiles that use a defensive and distrustful attitude, those who think that everyone acts in bad faith, that those around them only seek to harm them. This causes them to develop a hypersensitive, moody and suspicious character that seeks scapegoats for every problem when they are at a disadvantage.

To conclude, those who walk through the world avoiding responsibilities and distrusting the actions of others not only poison environments and contaminate them with discomfort and suffering. They also have a hard time; At the end of the day, with their behaviors the only thing they achieve is to increase the discomfort and contradiction. Let’s keep it in mind.

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