Humblebragging is the behavior of
boasting
Boasting or bragging is speaking with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.
Boasting tends to be an attempt to prove one's superiority by recounting accomplishments so that others will feel adm ...
under the pretenses of a complaint or modesty. The term was coined by comedian
Harris Wittels
Harris Lee Wittels (April 20, 1984 – February 19, 2015) was an American comedian. He was a writer for ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', a writer and executive producer for '' Parks and Recreation'', and a recurring guest on ''Comedy Bang! Bang!' ...
.
Etymology
The term humblebrag was first used in 2010 by Harris Wittels as the name of his
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account, @Humblebrag, where he would retweet posts he considered to be humblebrags.
The posts was later developed into a
Grantland
''Grantland'' was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. ''Grantland'' was named after famed ...
column. In 2012, he published a book about the concept, ''Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty''.
The popularity of the word led the
American Dialect Society
The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society p ...
to proclaim it their most useful Word of the Year for 2011.
Presentation
Humblebragging is one method of bragging while avoiding seeming impolite and breaking
social rules. Multiple rhetorical techniques have been used in humblebragging, including
asking questions, complaining, and presenting information in a seemingly objective way.
Psychological impacts
Studies on humblebragging suggest that it generally makes worse impression on others than standard bragging.
While humblebragging would appear to make one seem competent and likable, due to its lack of sincerity, it is ineffective and makes one seem both more unlikable and less compitent.
Wittels claimed that humblebragging "can only serve to make people jealous of the posters and/or hate them".
See also
*
False humility
False humility, also known as pseudo-humility, refers to a display of humility that is insincere or strategically employed to serve ulterior motives such as manipulation, self-promotion, or social validation. While genuine humility reflects a m ...
References
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Sociolinguistics
Interpersonal communication
Internet slang