This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
A shifting trend where individuals believe their destiny is shaped by external circumstances rather than their own actions.
When it shows up
After repeated setbacks that weren't your fault. Depression and learned helplessness states. Modern narratives that attribute all outcomes to systemic forces.
Failure mode
Attribution of causes shifts entirely to external forces. Agency is withdrawn even from situations where effort would produce results. The prediction becomes self-fulfilling: not trying guarantees no outcome, which confirms the belief.
Countermeasure
Start with micro-actions whose outcomes are genuinely controllable: small decisions, small tasks, small conversations. Rebuild the signal that effort produces outcomes on the small scale before generalising back to the large.
Related traps
Also connected in the mapThe Fundamental Attribution Error·Self-serving Bias·3 more, locked
Credit & first seen
PopularizedCoined/popularized by Gurwinder Bhogal (The Prism - gurwinder.blog). First heard on Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson () source ↗
Read next
Entry #95 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon