7 Examples of Crab Mentality

John Spacey, February 13, 2020

Crab mentality is the worldview that you'd rather fail than see others succeed. This is an analogy to the behavior of crabs caught in a bucket.

A single crab can easily escape. However, with a number of crabs in the same bucket they tend to grab each other as they try to climb the side such that none escape. The following are illustrative examples of crab mentality.

Abilene Paradox

Abilene paradox is the tendency for group decisions to reflect compromises such that each individual member of the group views the decision as irrational despite everyone in the group accepting the decision.

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome is when a society attacks wealthy, successful, talented and influential individuals or groups. This motivated by the view that things such as influence, status and wealth are a zero-sum game such that one person's success diminishes everyone else's chances.

Lose-Lose

Lose-lose strategies whereby you chose a path that causes everyone to lose. For example, a trade war is typically lose-lose as all nations benefit from gains from trade.

Whataboutism

Whataboutism is the claim that a wrong is mitigated by another wrong. For example, claiming that a nation is justified in ignoring a dire environmental problem because some other nation is ignoring it.

Allegory of the Long Spoons

Allegory of the long spoons is a traditional analogy that demonstrates the effects of cooperation, civility and goodwill. It states that both heaven and hell have plenty of food and spoons that are far too long. In heaven, everyone feeds each other across the table from them such that all are well feed. In hell, everyone tries to feed themselves and all starve. Remarkably, a similar story appears in a number of cultures including Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Chinese folklore. Each variation has a different explanation of why people must cooperate to eat.

Tragedy of the Commons

Tragedy of the commons is the tendency for shared resources such as sea and air to be destroyed because nobody pays for the damage they cause such that nobody has an individual incentive to save them.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is an emotion that can be described as joy at the misery of others. This is a potential motivation to explain the choice of lose-lose strategies that harm all.