A guilt trip is a feeling of
guilt or
responsibility, especially an unjustified one induced by someone else.
Overview
Creating a guilt trip in another person may be considered to be manipulation in the form of
punishment
Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular ac ...
for a perceived transgression.
interprets the guilt trip as a special kind of
intimidation
Intimidation is to "make timid or make fearful"; or to induce fear. This includes intentional behaviors of forcing another person to experience general discomfort such as humiliation, embarrassment, inferiority, limited freedom, etc and the victi ...
tactic. A manipulator suggests to the conscientious victim that he or she does not care enough, is too selfish or has it easy. This usually results in the victim feeling bad, keeping them in a
self-doubting, anxious and submissive position.
There are limited studies examining guilt trips, and those studies tend to focus on guilt trips in parent–child relationships.
[Humeny C (2013)]
A Qualitative Investigation of a Guilt Trip
Conference Paper Conference: Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University Spring Proceedings
Types
Three types of guilt trip are proposed:
[
* ]Tongue-in-cheek
The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...
* Moral education
* Side effect.
See also
References
Further reading
Academic articles
* Baldassar L (2015). "Guilty feelings and the guilt trip: Emotions and motivation in migration and transnational caregiving". ''Emotion, Space and Society'', vol. 16, Aug 2015, pp. 81–89.
* Kezar D (2000). "Shakespeare's Guilt Trip in Henry V". ''Modern Language Quarterly
Modern Language Quarterly (MLQ), established in 1940, is a quarterly, literary history journal, produced (housed) at the University of Washington and published by Duke University Press. The current editor is Jeffrey Todd Knight. Marshall Brown ( ...
'', vol. 61.3, pp. 431–461.
Books
* Hesz A, Neophytou B (2009). ''Guilt Trip: From Fear to Guilt on the Green Bandwagon''.
* Scottoline L, Serritella F (2014). ''Have a Nice Guilt Trip''.
External links
{{wiktionary, guilt trip, guilt-trip
* Turndorf J (2014
How to Not Get Taken on a Guilt Trip
* Turndorf
How to Stop Getting Taken on Guilt Trips
''Psychology Today
''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direc ...
'' 08 Apr 2014
Guilt