Crab Mentality

---

Definition

A. “Crab mentality is a phenomenon where people react negatively, in terms of their thoughts, statements, or actions, to those who get ahead of them, even though they don’t expect there to be direct benefits to doing so.” (Effectiviology, n.d.) 1. Crab mentality often entails a pattern of thinking wherein one is unable to truly be happy for others’ achievements. Rather, they belittle and think of ways to harm those who are achieving bigger goals. 2. Entails the kind of thinking that is “If I cannot have it, then no one can.”

Background

“Crab Mentality” is a popular Filipino phrase first coined by Ninotchka Rosca, a Filipino feminist, author, journalist, and human rights activist. The general idea associated with this term draws from “The Crab Effect,’ which illustrates the manner in which crabs stuck in a barrel attempt to escape. Here, as the crabs try to escape the bucket, other crabs tend to pull them back down into their misery (Itani, 2021).

The symptoms of such a phenomenon date way back to Spanish times, when the peninsulares would constantly speak negatively of other people, especially Filipinos. Later on, this influenced many Filipino rebel leaders, including General Emilio Aguinaldo’s Magdalo faction (Person, 2005). Crab mentality was first identified among Filipinos when the Magdalo faction executed Andres Bonifacio’s refusal to recognize the new government of Emilio Aguinaldo, showing an extreme behavior of resentment and self-preservation (Ortuoste, 2022). Aside from this, crab mentality is not exclusive to its Filipino origin as well. Due to this phenomenon being a type of universal human behavior, it can also be sourced from various societies outside of the Philippines. Take, for example, Aesop, an ancient Greek fabulist, who portrayed the concept of crab mentality through his short story entitled The Young Crab and His Mother (Goodreads, n.d.). In this story, the mother crab is witnessed as condemning her son, who is unable to walk straight forward, when in fact the mother herself is unable to do so.

Overall, there is no one particular source that led to the crab mentality, as it is a universal phenomenon susceptible to being encountered by anyone. Nevertheless, the concrete version of this crab-like behavior is theorized to hint back to the Spanish colonization period in the Philippines (M., 2021).

The 21st Century Adaptation

In The General Populace: The “Crab Mentality” phenomenon can be found in various social sectors of society such as education or work.

In Education, jealousy between students due to better academic performance is very common throughout schools across the world. The competitive nature of academic institutions further fosters this phenomenon since most acknowledgement is only given to those who have achieved the most. Students often joke about the future failures of a successful schoolmate or even belittle their achievements citing luck or bias as reasons for success.

The workplace remains a competitive portion of society especially in a corporate setting. The concept of “climbing the corporate ladder” is one prevalent idea that drives this phenomenon’s existence in this sector. Due to the difficulty of “climbing”, colleagues achieving promotions or commendations are often met with scorn or negativity by co-workers due to jealousy. In some cases, “crab mentality” may drive a person to purposely find reasons why a successful colleague should not be given said achievement such as exposing private matters or spreading negative rumors.

In The Philippines, crab mentality, or “Talangkang Pag-iisip”, is particularly prominent in the way that we often discredit one’s success by crediting anyone other than the person who worked toward the accomplishment. Some ways that we may encounter this mentality is when we hear or say remarks that credit a person’s success to their wealth, family connections, academic background, or even simply to God’s goodness instead of their hard work. More extreme measures would include those discussed before, such as sabotaging another person to prevent their success doe to the said mentality. Talangkang Pay-iisip comes from a place of envy and shame, where one is envious of the other’s achievements and ashamed of themselves for not doing the same. To compensate for these feelings, they often find reasons as to why the other’s success isn’t really theirs to be proud of in order to make them feel better about their own shortcomings (Gohu, 2023).

This article "Crab Mentality" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Crab Mentality. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---