Crab Mentality. Jan 2025
Walking down the beach on my evening walk, I came across this fellow. I’ve often wondered why the phrase Crab Mentality was coined and it’s origins.
I understand it’s supposed to stem from the behaviour of crabs in a bucket. When one crab begins climbing out, the others will pull it back down, ensuring the demise of all crabs in the bucket.
And so the phrase refers to the human tendency to pull down those around, especially those close to us, either out of jealousy or envy.
But are crabs really guilty as charged? Is it them pulling down the other or are they simply trying to save themselves by latching on to the escaping crab? It’s what a drowning man would do.
Abraham Tesser, a professor of psychology came up with the Self-evaluation Maintenance Theory (SEM). According to this, we humans engage in self-evaluation through introspection and through comparison with others – especially those close to us.
This is something that has exploded in the age of social media.
When we see all of humanity as one – along with the rest of nature and the universe, perhaps we can then shed the crab mentality and actually be happy when we see someone else achieving something?