Why Do People Need To Find Culprits For Everything?

Some seem to live with an eternal allergic reaction. Everything itches him, everything annoys him and makes him angry. They are those people who need to find culprits for everything, because in their eyes nothing seems to be going well, the entire universe has conspired to go against them and they have become used to speaking the language of constant reproach and accusation. If you have met someone like that, be patient, because this personality profile abounds in the world.

Now, what is behind this behavior? As we well know, sometimes it is easier to limit ourselves to criticizing a behavior without knowing or investigating its motivations. We are all clear that they are exhausting, we know that constant complaint and accusation wears out and that the easiest way out in these cases is to put distance, and the more the better.

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

Feeling that we must look guilty towards 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 look to blame for everything?

It is often said that an optimist sees the glass as half full, the pessimist sees it as empty, and whoever complains about everything will blame us for having given him a dirty glass on purpose. As we can imagine, adopting this type of customs indicates that something happens. It is not normal for a person to limit himself to seeing the dark side of life, and also to hold each of his unfortunate circumstances responsible.

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 someone else’s shoulders instead of assuming it on your own person. If I have failed the exam it is because the teacher has a mania for me and not because I have not studied. If my partner has left me, it is because someone has convinced him of it and not because he no longer loves me.

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

We are basically dealing with a defensive mechanism that is deployed by the brain itself. People who need to blame everything and take no responsibility for anything make use of sophisticated cognitive biases and clearly immature approaches. We analyze them below.

Adamic syndrome

Adamic syndrome does not describe any pathological behavior. It is one more way of labeling a behavior that is seen frequently. In this case it defines those people who blame others in order to get out of any situation unscathed. This term, “Adamic,” is so defined 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 his creator for what happened: after all, you gave me the woman as a companion and she gave me the fruit of the tree. I ate it then. 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 responsibility.

The counterfactual simulation

Behind this convoluted term there is a curious explanation about why there are people who need to find the culprits of everything. It was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that linked this trend with what they called counterfactual simulation.

It consists in that when something happens to us, our mind, far from seeing what has 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 haven’t approved my project because someone has bribed them? What if I haven’t gotten that promotion because someone has 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, although they sound bizarre. Doing so creates less suffering than assuming our role in such 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, the variable “I” is not always in that equation. For example, if my partner is increasingly apathetic, it is because she has a problem at work or because her parents are overwhelming her.

In that cause and effect, the culprit seeker 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 find guilty of everything, the basis of everything is found in those cognitive biases that often make us blind. In creatures that refuse to admit with all their might what is evident.

Take, for example, that manager who describes his workers as lazy because they do not produce enough. He does not hesitate to blame them for the bad numbers regardless of the conditions in which those employees perform the work.

People who need to find guilty of everything and the eternal victimhood

Chronic victimhood is very often behind the need to blame almost everything. They are profiles that make use of a defensive and distrustful attitude, of 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 the world avoiding responsibilities and distrusting the actions of others, not only poison environments and pollute them with discomfort and suffering. They too have a hard time; at the end of the day, with their behaviors the only thing they achieve is to increase discomfort and contradiction. Let’s keep it in mind.