Character assassination

Short description: Deliberate effort to damage an individual's reputation or credibility

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Character assassination (CA) is a deliberate and sustained effort to damage the reputation or credibility of an individual.[1][2] The term character assassination became popular around 1930.[3] This concept, as a subject of scholarly study, was originally introduced by Davis (1950)[4] in a collection of essays revealing the dangers of political smear campaigns. Six decades later Icks and Shiraev (2014)[2] rejuvenated the term and revived academic interest by addressing and comparing a variety of historical character-assassination events.

## Contents

* 1 Studying CA
* 2 Narcissism
* 3 Psychopathy in the workplace
* 4 In politics
* 5 In a totalitarian regime
* 6 The International Society for the Study of Character Assassination
* 7 Research Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics
* 8 See also
* 9 References

## Studying CA

Icks and Shiraev (2014)[2] address several political science models to explain character assassination from the attacker's point of view. They believe that the attacker's motivation is often based on the intent to destroy the target psychologically, or to reduce their public support or chances to succeed in a political competition. For example, during elections, attacks are often used to sway undecided voters, create uncertainty with tentative voters, or prevent defections of supporters. These attacks therefore become an effective means of manipulating voters toward a desirable action. They also facilitate the repositioning of originally favorable supporters to the ranks of the "undecided" or "uncommitted" voters.

## Narcissism

Main article: Philosophy:Narcissism

According to Thomas, character assassination is an intentional attempt, usually by a narcissist or their codependents, to influence the portrayal or reputation of someone in such a way as to cause others to develop an extremely negative or unappealing perception of them. It typically involves deliberate exaggeration or manipulation of facts, the spreading of rumours and deliberate misinformation to present an untrue picture of the targeted person, and unwarranted and excessive criticism.[5][need quotation to verify]

## Psychopathy in the workplace

Main article: Social:Psychopathy in the workplace

The authors of the book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work describe a five phase model of how a typical workplace psychopath climbs to and maintains power. In phase four (confrontation), the psychopath will use techniques of character assassination to maintain their agenda.[6]

## In politics

In Australian politics, a Dorothy Dixer is a rehearsed or planted question asked of a government Minister by a backbencher of their own political party during Parliamentary Question Time. While intended to enable a Minister to discuss or address concerns about the subject asked of him, a Dixer will often conclude with "Is the Minister aware of any alternative policies?" This addition allows the Minister to launch into often aggressive attacks on the opposition, which depending on the leeway offered by the Speaker (who is a member of the ruling party and thus will usually side with the Minister), can include not just attacks on Opposition policy, but attempts to character assassinate opposition members directly.[7]

Charging an opponent with character assassination may have political benefits. In the hearings for Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, supporters claimed that both Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill were victims of character assassination.[8]

## In a totalitarian regime

The effect of a character assassination driven by an individual is not equal to that of a state-driven campaign. The state-sponsored destruction of reputations, fostered by political propaganda and cultural mechanisms, can have more far-reaching consequences. One of the earliest signs of a society's compliance to loosening the reins on the perpetration of crimes (and even massacres) with total impunity is when a government favors or directly encourages a campaign aimed at destroying the dignity and reputation of its adversaries, and the public accepts its allegations without question. The mobilisation toward ruining the reputation of adversaries is the prelude to the mobilisation of violence in order to annihilate them. Generally, official dehumanisation has preceded the physical assault of the victims.[9]

Specific examples include Zersetzung, by the Stasi secret service agency of East Germany, and kompromat in Russia.[10] It was also prevalent during the Red Scare in the United States, being carried out by both the government and the media.

## The International Society for the Study of Character Assassination

The International Society for the Study of Character Assassination (ISSCA) specializes in the academic study and research of how character attacks and character assassinations have been executed in both history and during contemporary times.[11] In July 2011, scholars from nine countries gathered at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, to debate "the art of smear and defamation in history and today".[12] They formed a group to study character assassination throughout the ages. The group included historians, political scientists, and political psychologists.[13]

## Research Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics

Founded in 2016 in cooperation with the ISSCA, the Research Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP) includes scholars with disciplinary homes in psychology, history, communication and public relations.[14] With investigators from George Mason University, the University of Baltimore, and the University of Amsterdam, the CARP team focuses efforts along three main dimensions: research on historical and contemporary examples of character assassination; education for academic and public audiences about character assassination causes, impacts and prevention; and risk assessment to determine vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies for public figures concerned about their reputations. The Mason CARP website features materials about the lab and its activities. The CARP Lab additionally publishes a blog[15] and is affiliated[16] with the Global Informality Project, a leading online resource for the world's open secrets, unwritten rules and hidden practices, broadly defined as "ways of getting things done."[17]

In 2017 and 2019, CARP hosted two international conferences that welcomed numerous U.S. and international researchers and academics studying different aspects of CA. The proceedings and report of the CARP 2017 conference "Character Assassination in Theory and Practice" can be found on the Mason website.[18][19]

The CARP 2019 conference "Character Assassination and Populism: Challenges and Responses" featured critical input from practitioners in crisis management, journalism, and public relations. The event attracted scholars from twenty countries around the world.[20]

In 2019, the CARP Lab published its first handbook titled "Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management".[21]

## See also

* Black propaganda
* Damnatio memoriae
* Corporate sociopolitical activism
* Fair game (Scientology)
* Go woke, go broke
* Hollywood blacklist
* Information warfare
* Kompromat
* McCarthyism
* Noisy investigation
* Pittura infamante
* Smear campaign
* Social undermining
* Personal attack
* Tone policing
* Zersetzung

## References

1. ↑ character assassination. Definition on Merriam-Webster (update 14 Dec 2025)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Icks, Martijn; Shiraev, Eric, eds (2014). Character Assassination Throughout the Ages. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-349-48512-3.
3. ↑ "Google Ngram Viewer". https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=character+assassination&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4;,character+assassination;,c0;,s0;;character+assassination;,c0;;Character+assassination;,c0;;Character+Assassination;,c0.
4. ↑ Davis, Jerome (1950). Character assassination. New York: Philosophical Library.
5. ↑ Thomas, D (2010), Narcissism: Behind the Mask
6. ↑ Baibak, P; Hare, R. D Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (2007)
7. ↑ "Dorothy Dix question or Dorothy Dixer". Parliamentary glossary. Parliamentary Education Office (Commonwealth Parliament of Australia). http://www.peo.gov.au/students/gloss_cd.html#D. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
8. ↑ Walkowitz, Rebecca L.; Garber, Marjorie B.; Matlock, Jann (1993). Media spectacles. New York: Routledge. pp. 32. ISBN 0-415-90751-9. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415907514/page/32.
9. ↑ Rojas, Rafael; Blanco, Juan Antonio; de Aragon, Uva; Montaner, Carlos Alberto; Faya, Ana Julia; Lupi, Gordiano (2012). Aim, Fire! Character Assassination in Cuba. Miami: Eriginal Books. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-61370-974-0.
10. ↑ Bailey, Anna; Barron, Sheelagh; Curro, Costanza; Teague, Elizabeth (2018). "Control:: instruments of informal governance". Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 2. UCL Press. pp. 420–486. ISBN 978-1-78735-190-5.
11. ↑ "Character Assassination". http://characterattack.files.wordpress.com/.
12. ↑ "Character Assassination: The Art of Defamation Throughout the Ages. International Colloquium Heidelberg July 21st - July 23rd, 2011". https://characterattack.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/2011-schedule.pdf.
13. ↑ The International Society for the Study of Character Assassination https://characterattack.wordpress.com
14. ↑ "Research Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Politics". George Mason University. https://communication.gmu.edu/research-and-centers/carp.
15. ↑ "Blog". Wordpress. https://carplab.wordpress.com/blog/.
16. ↑ "Character assassination (Global)". MediaWiki. http://www.in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Character_assassination_(Global).
17. ↑ "Global Informality Project". MediaWiki. http://www.in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Global_Informality_Project.
18. ↑ Icks, Martijn; Keohane, Jennifer; Samoilenko, Sergei; Shiraev, Eric (2017). Character Assassination in Theory and Practice. https://s3.amazonaws.com/chssweb/documents/25632/original/Final_CARP_Report.pdf?1500493596. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
19. ↑ "2017 Conference". George Mason University. https://communication.gmu.edu/research-and-centers/carp/2017-conference.
20. ↑ Aburdeineh, Mariam (14 March 2019). "Character assassination conference promotes dialogue aimed at solutions". George Mason University. https://www2.gmu.edu/news/575491.
21. ↑ Samoilenko, Sergei; Icks, Martijn; Keohane, Jennifer; Shiraev, Eric (2019). Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management (1st ed.). UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138556584.

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Abuse

Types|

* Anti-social behaviour
* Bullying
* Child abuse
* neglect
* sexual
* military
* Cruelty to animals
* Domestic abuse
* Elder abuse
* Gaslighting
* Harassment
* Humiliation
* Incivility
* Institutional abuse
* Intimidation
* Neglect
* Persecution
* Professional abuse
* Proxy abuse
* Psychological abuse
* Physical abuse
* Religious abuse
* Sexual abuse
* Stalking
* Structural abuse
* Verbal abuse
* more...

Related topics|

* Abusive power and control
* Child grooming
* Complex post-traumatic stress disorder
* Dehumanization
* Denial
* Destabilisation
* Exaggeration
* Isolation
* Just-world hypothesis
* Lying
* Manipulation
* Minimisation
* Narcissism
* Psychological projection
* Psychological trauma
* Psychopathy
* Rationalization
* Traumatic bonding
* Victim blaming
* Victim playing
* Victimisation

* v
* t
* e

Bullying

Types|

* Abusive supervision
* Cyberbullying
* Disability bullying
* Doxing
* Gay bashing
* Hazing
* Military bullying
* Mobbing
* Parental bullying of children
* Passive aggression
* Peer victimization
* Prison bullying
* Rankism
* Relational aggression
* School bullying
* Sexual bullying
* Workplace bullying (Academia
* Higher education
* Information technology
* Legal aspects
* Legal profession
* Medicine
* Nursing
* Teaching
* Toxic leader)

Elements|

* Betrayal
* Blacklisting
* Bullying and emotional intelligence
* Character assassination
* Control
* Coercion
* Climate of fear
* Defamation
* Destabilisation
* Discrediting
* Embarrassment
* False accusation
* Gaslighting
* Gossip
* Harassment
* Humiliation
* Incivility
* Innuendo
* Insult
* Intimidation
* Isolation
* Kiss up kick down
* Mind games
* Moving the goalposts
* Nagging
* Name calling
* Personal attacks
* Psychological abuse
* Physical abuse
* Rudeness
* Sarcasm
* School pranks
* Setting up to fail
* Silent treatment
* Smear campaign
* Social exclusion
* Social undermining
* Taunting
* Teasing
* Whispering campaign
* Workplace incivility
* Verbal abuse
* Yelling

Organizations|

* Act Against Bullying
* Ditch the Label
* Bullying UK
* It Gets Better Project
* Kidscape
* GRIN Campaign
* Jer's Vision

Activists and
academics|

* Andrea Adams
* Louise Burfitt-Dons
* Tim Field
* SuEllen Fried
* Liam Hackett
* Heinz Leymann
* Gary Namie
* Kenneth Westhues

Actions|

* Anti-Bullying Day
* Anti-Bullying Week
* International STAND UP to Bullying Day
* Anti-bullying legislation
* International Day of Pink

Notable suicides
(List)|

* William Arthur Gibbs (1877)
* Kelly Yeomans (1997)
* Hamed Nastoh (2000)
* Dawn-Marie Wesley (2000)
* Nicola Ann Raphael (2001)
* Ryan Halligan (2003)
* Megan Meier (2006)
* Sladjana Vidovic (2008)
* Phoebe Prince (2010)
* Tyler Clementi (2010)
* Jamey Rodemeyer (2011)
* Jamie Hubley (2011)
* Kenneth Weishuhn (2012)
* Audrie Pott (2012)
* Amanda Todd (2012)
* Jadin Bell (2013)
* Rehtaeh Parsons (2013)
* Rebecca Ann Sedwick (2013)
* Conrad Roy (2014)
* Tyrone Unsworth (2016)

Murder–suicides
(incidents)|

* Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine, 1999)
* Jeff Weise (Red Lake, 2005)
* Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech, 2007)
* Pekka-Eric Auvinen (Jokela High School, 2007)
* Elliot Rodger (Isla Vista, 2014)

Related topics|

* Control freak
* Dehumanization
* Depression
* Emotional blackmail
* Just-world hypothesis
* Machiavellianism in the workplace
* Narcissism in the workplace
* Personal boundaries
* Personality disorders
* PTSD (C-PTSD)
* Psychological manipulation
* Psychological projection
* Psychological trauma
* Psychopathy in the workplace
* Scapegoating
* Self-esteem
* Social dominance orientation
* Suicide among LGBT youth
* Sycophancy
* Victim blaming
* Victim playing
* Victimisation
* Whistleblowing

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Media manipulation

Context|

* Bias
* Crowd psychology
* Deception
* Dumbing down
* False balance
* Half-truths
* Machiavellianism
* Media
* Obfuscation
* Orwellian
* Persuasion
* Psychological manipulation

Activism|

* Alternative media
* Boycott
* Call-out culture
* Cancel culture
* Civil disobedience
* Culture jamming
* Demonstrations
* Deplatforming
* Guerrilla communication
* Hacktivism
* Internet
* Media
* Occupations
* Petitions
* Protests
* Youth

Advertising|

* Billboards
* False
* Infomercials
* Mobiles
* Modeling
* Radio
* Sex
* Slogans
* Testimonials
* TV
* Criticism of advertising
* Annoyance factor

* Censorship
* Media regulation

* Books
* Broadcast law
* Burying of scholars
* Catch and kill
* Corporate
* Cover-ups
* Euphemism
* Films
* Historical negationism
* Internet
* Political
* Religious
* Self

Hoaxing|

* Alternative facts
* April Fools'
* Fake news website
* Fakelore
* Fictitious entries
* Forgery
* Gaslighting
* List
* Literary
* Racial
* Urban legend
* Virus

Marketing|

* Branding
* Loyalty
* Product
* Product placement
* Publicity
* Research
* Word of mouth

News media|

* Agenda-setting
* Broadcasting
* Circus
* Cycle
* False balance
* Infotainment
* Managing
* Narcotizing dysfunction
* Newspeak
* Pseudo-event
* Scrum
* Sensationalism
* Tabloid journalism

Political campaigning|

* Advertising
* Astroturfing
* Attack ad
* Canvassing
* Character assassination
* Charm offensive
* Dog-whistle politics
* Election promises
* Lawn signs
* Manifestos
* Name recognition
* Negative
* Push polling
* Smear campaign
* Wedge issue

Propaganda|

* Bandwagon
* Crowd manipulation
* Disinformation
* Fearmongering
* Framing
* Indoctrination
* Loaded language
* Lying press
* National mythology
* Rally 'round the flag effect
* Techniques

Psychological warfare|

* Airborne leaflets
* False flag
* Fifth column
* Information (IT)
* Lawfare
* Political
* Public diplomacy
* Sedition
* Subversion

Public relations|

* Cult of personality
* Doublespeak
* Non-apology apology
* Reputation management
* Slogans
* Sound bites
* Spin
* Transfer
* Understatement
* Weasel words

Sales|

* Cold calling
* Door-to-door
* Pricing
* Product demonstrations
* Promotion
* Promotional merchandise
* Telemarketing

Related|

* Media franchise
* Influence of mass media
* Media bias
* Concentration of media ownership
* Media ethics
* Media bias in the United States
* Media proprietor
* Media ecology
* Media democracy

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