Discrimination and the Perception of Discrimination

I had forgotten about this piece of research, which was a clever design and very revealiing about what we see in our society today.  The researchers put fake facial scars on participants and told them to go into an interview and see what kind of reaction they thought they were getting to the presence of the scars.  Before the actual interview, the participants were told their makeup was being finalized, but the scars were removed.  The participants then did the interview and reported that their scars (which weren’t actually there) were stared at and people were rude to them.    (Study Article)

The analogy to racial, gender and other supposed discrimination is obvious.  Particularly in today’s environment wherein everyone is a victim of some type and society is described as essentially discriminatory toward any number of characteristics, people constantly report being mistreated, even though there is no evidence they have been.  There are notable benefits to being a victim of discrimination.  You get sympathy from others, especially members who share the supposedly discriminated-against characteristic.  You can claim a need for special treatment to make up for your alleged mistreatment.  And most importantly, you can avoid any responsibility for your behavior or your failure to succeed in life.

People are constantly looking for an excuse to avoid responsibility for what happens in their lives.  Being discriminated is a great one.  The antidote is also obvious–ignore this crap about micro-aggressions and discrimination and hold people responsible for their own behavior and for creating success in their lives.