Poll: Why does everything always blame something else?

[Hazzard]

PC sales are down, Microsoft blames Tablets when we all know it's Windows 8.
There's a mass shooting, politicians blame games (slightly off-topic but it's an example of blaming something else)
EA accepts people hate them, they say it's because people don't understand them. (Not everyone, but anyone who understands the industry to an extent like escapists)
You can even bring this down to individual mistakes, it's not me, it's something else.

So why is it every time something makes a mistake or something happens they don't like they never admit it's them, it's something else.
EA could do much better if they admitted they had shitty business practices and tried to use better ones.
If politicians stopped lying all the time and tried to actually help their countries rather than please the voters we'd be better off.

So is Human Nature just shit and nobody think about improving? Or is it something else?

 

[NightmareExpress]

At the end of the day, people can be...pretty horrible.
But if we dwell on that, we get sad. So instead, rather than point our apparently collective fingers at the real source of the issue, we play the blame game. How many sources, regardless of connectivity to an underlying issue, can you cite as the cause of a problem?

Violence? Bah, it's not a result of people being judgmental, emotional, close-minded and negatively effected by societal constructs...it's video games, books, religion and mental health issues! We should demonize 'em, put 'em through alienation and not think too much on what actually caused a tragedy somewhere.

People in general are incredibly reluctant to recognize that they are responsible for failure.
Companies, countries and households are led by people who assume direct or indirect responsibility for whatever comes out of those bodies. Thus, the blame game often happens there as well. If it is apparent that you've failed and you can't shift responsibility to another entity, you'll likely say that "circumstances" and etc. were the reason despite them not actually being so.

I'm certain there's a psychological term for this.
Or maybe it's just what happens when you grow up observing people being punished. You don't want to be punished (masochists exempt from this question), do you? Especially later on in life where the consequences can be dire. I think I'll pick the third option, because this seems to be a burden of sentience moreso than the lack of intelligence or moral integrity (which is only available to us as a result of being sentient).

 

[Yuno Gasai]

People don't like accepting responsibility for things.

People (and groups of people, e.g. companies) don't like accepting responsibility for pitfalls because it results in them being viewed in a more negative light.

Then there's the issue that humanity likes to point fingers and find other things to blame for bad things that happen, even if those things clearly would've happened regardless of any outside influence (or if it was nobody's fault).

It's kind of an awkward combination, really - people like to point fingers, but they don't like to accept blame/responsibility.

 

[Keoul]

People are afraid of being accountable.
It's easier for them, both punishment wise and in regards to their conscience when they pin the blame on someone or something else. It's human nature I guess.

 

[King Billi]

So... are you actually asking what's blame for this particular attitude in people to always try and blame something else?

Hmm..? I don't know for sure but I suspect video games must be the cause somehow.

 

[Scrustle]

It's pretty obvious isn't it?

No one wants to see flaws in themselves. Everyone wants to think that they're better than everyone else. There's never a problem with themselves, it's always something else that's to blame. The world is unjust and they are the hero of their own story, fighting against the hardships the world throws at them to try and make their life harder because it doesn't understand how much better everything would be if it agreed with them.

It's much easier and kinder to their ego to believe that rather than anything else, and people are lazy and egocentric.

 

[ellers07]

I'm not sure that your options in the poll really cover the issue. It's not quite as simple as people are either stupid or "arseholes". Whether it's a bigger issue like game sales or smaller, personal ones, it's more about being wrong and dealing with consequences. Nobody likes being wrong and they certainly don't want to blame themselves when something fails or goes horribly awry. It might be that be are just too clever. They're so clever that they can trick themselves into blaming someone or something else for their own failings.

I could be wrong. It's not my fault if I am though.

 

[Wraith]

Accepting that you have faults would be admitting that you can be wrong, and no one likes being wrong.

I will say this, but I will not answer the poll, it's to antagonizing to humanity- blaming them for their lying rather than expose WHY they lie.

 

[Tom_green_day]

PC sales are down

I hate to be the one to say it but maybe everyone has a computer now? There is only a finite amount of living people.
People blame someone else because no-one can come to terms with their weaknesses. If they could they'd be super-people, and therefore fictional.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

PC sales are down, Microsoft blames Tablets when we all know it's Windows 8.
There's a mass shooting, politicians blame games (slightly off-topic but it's an example of blaming something else)
EA accepts people hate them, they say it's because people don't understand them. (Not everyone, but anyone who understands the industry to an extent like escapists)
You can even bring this down to individual mistakes, it's not me, it's something else.

So why is it every time something makes a mistake or something happens they don't like they never admit it's them, it's something else.
EA could do much better if they admitted they had shitty business practices and tried to use better ones.
If politicians stopped lying all the time and tried to actually help their countries rather than please the voters we'd be better off.

So is Human Nature just shit and nobody think about improving? Or is it something else?

Clearly all of this is your fault.
I don't know how you do it, but it's all on you now.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, the usual one about admitting to yourself you were wrong.

However, most people seem to be assuming that people believe what they say, they are scrabbling for rationalisations to tell themselves.

Why can't they just by outright lying? "It wasn't me, it was them, honest" is hardly unusual, is it?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not a very big HP fan but I've always liked this quote from Dumbledore: "Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy".I like how it's RIGHT instead of DIFFICULT, as if they're the same thing (which they are, according to the quote). So I guess most people take the easy way and pass it along.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Here's an anecdote that might be relevant:

Airplanes generally do not crash. The pilot(s) can be inattentive and things go fine - it's pretty automated, after all. There can be poor flying conditions and things go fine - pilots go through a lot of training, after all. Crashes generally only happen when the two coincide.

In other words, when something goes wrong, it was probably everyone's fault. Even if a person would normally be able to own up to their mistakes, they are absolved of having to do so because someone else made an error as well. They are released from the obligation of self-examination.

Also, in your poll, why isn't there an "all of the above" option?

 

[jdogtwodolla]

Maybe Everything has a reason. Maybe Everything's perfect lawn keeps getting foot dents in the grass and his petunias pulled out of his garden by Something Else's little brat. Maybe Something Else should learn to be a responsible parent and teach his son it's not OK to pull other peoples flowers.

Seriously, pushing the blame on to something else keeps something from not admitting their mistake, and something that never makes a mistake seems all the more better right?

 

[piinyouri]

It's easier to make sense of the world when there is always a reason the brain can attach for why bad things happen.

 

[Angie7F]

I thought this is why we have religion.

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

So is Human Nature just shit and nobody think about improving?

Answer, for $800: What is the internet?

 

[fletch_talon]

PC sales are down, Microsoft blames Tablets when we all know it's Windows 8.
There's a mass shooting, politicians blame games (slightly off-topic but it's an example of blaming something else)
EA accepts people hate them, they say it's because people don't understand them. (Not everyone, but anyone who understands the industry to an extent like escapists)
You can even bring this down to individual mistakes, it's not me, it's something else.

So why is it every time something makes a mistake or something happens they don't like they never admit it's them, it's something else.
EA could do much better if they admitted they had shitty business practices and tried to use better ones.
If politicians stopped lying all the time and tried to actually help their countries rather than please the voters we'd be better off.

So is Human Nature just shit and nobody think about improving? Or is it something else?

a) We don't know its Windows 8, some think it is. Much like Microsoft think its tablets. Its all theories and opinion and the blame probably lies with some combination of the 2 with other contributing factors thrown in to boot.
-Sincere Question: Did PC sales decline with the release of Vista? And did people attribute the former to the latter? Because I remember hearing at least as much complaining about Vista as I have Windows 8.

b) Politicians blame things that they think they can do something about (and something they dont have any issues changing). Hence why instead of reducing access to guns to reduce gun crime (which some of us believe to be a solution) or working on getting a better mental health system established (which all/most of us acknowledge to be part of the problem) they try to enforce restrictions on a contraversial form of entertainment that already has issues with public image in some demographics.
-Also, addressing your issue with politicians. Big part of the problem is that being a politician is a job. People who get into politics are just as likely to be doing it for the money as the wish to help their country. Also, even for those whose intentions are good, you have to make sure any policies you have can get results before your term is up because the majority of people don't care if you're working towards a goal. As far as they're concerned, you haven't done anything.
TL;DR
Politicians have to please voters, either because they want to keep their job, or they need to stay in power to effect change.

c) EA can't admit to their faults or else they would need to work towards changing them. This would be good for us but (as they see it) bad for them. They make a lot of money off of people who don't give a damn about the things people like the majority of Escapists hate them for so at this stage they're obviously not bothered enough to change.

In every situation there is a reason for shifting blame. Sometimes we don't know where the blame lies or there's multiple contributing factors (Microsoft), sometimes we blame something else to try and make up for things we can't change (Politicians) or don't want to (EA).
And believe it or not, sometimes we blame other things because we believe other things are to blame and we're not always wrong.

 

[Pinkamena]

Its easier to place the blame on something, for example, when a shootout occurs, people blame videogames, because when tragedy strikes, people need to blame something. In terms of lackluster PC sales, it is easy for them to blame tablets, because it is easier to push blame on something than to look into the problem, but who knows.

Reminds me of the time people weren't giving Epic Mickey (a game that got relatively positive reviews) full scores and the creator claimed it was because players "didn't get it" It surely wasn't the fault of the game holding your hand the whole way through or anything like that!

You're right, it's always easier to push the blame onto something else than having to deal with it yourself. But I don't think it's always a concious choice. Some times you might genuinely believe that the problem is caused by something other than yourself, and I guess that's what causes most game devs to retort with "You just don't get it" when their game gets bad reviews. I mean, they have worked really hard on it for years, of course they're going to be in love with it. They might understand on some basic level that their game just sucks, but they can't accept it because of how much effort they've put into it.

 

[HoneyVision]

People will go to EXTREME EXTREME EXTREME lengths to invent a 'logical' explanation for utter bullshit.