# Concept creep (harm inflation)

**URL:** <https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/concept-creep-harm-inflation/1308>\
**Category:** Social sciences\
**Tags:** psychology, viewpoint-diversity\
**Created:** [April 17, 2021, 7:17am UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/concept-creep-harm-inflation/1308 "2021-04-17T07:17:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rebecca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/onscienceandacademia.org/rebecca/32/520_2.png) [@rebecca](https://onscienceandacademia.org/u/rebecca)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 7:17am UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/concept-creep-harm-inflation/1308/1 "2021-04-17T07:17:22Z")

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I knew of the issue overall but wasn’t aware of the psychological concept capturing it: ‘concept creep’.

“Concepts that refer to the negative aspects of human experience and behavior have expanded their meanings so that they now encompass a much broader range of phenomena than before. […] The concepts of abuse, bullying, trauma, mental disorder, addiction, and prejudice are examined to illustrate these historical changes. In each case, the concept’s boundary has stretched and its meaning has dilated […] [T]he expansion primarily reflects an ever-increasing sensitivity to harm, reflecting a liberal moral agenda. […] Although conceptual change is inevitable and often well motivated, concept creep runs the risk of pathologizing everyday experience and encouraging a sense of virtuous but impotent victimhood.”

> **[Concept Creep: Psychology's Expanding Concepts of Harm and Pathology](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1047840X.2016.1082418?journalCode=hpli20&)**
>
> (2016). Concept Creep: Psychology's Expanding Concepts of Harm and Pathology. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 1-17.

> **[Harm inflation: Making sense of concept creep](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10463283.2020.1796080?src=recsys&)**
>
> (2020). Harm inflation: Making sense of concept creep. European Review of Social Psychology: Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 254-286.

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**Author:** ![surya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/onscienceandacademia.org/surya/32/203_2.png) [@surya](https://onscienceandacademia.org/u/surya)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://onscienceandacademia.org/t/concept-creep-harm-inflation/1308/2 "2021-04-23T14:58:18Z")

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well well well, thank you for this… just at this very moment am discussing with friends about the word and concept ‘gaslighting’, a word that i only notice since a few years back… it seems that so much gaslighting has occurred in the past few years, going by the twitter universe… ☹