Concept creep is the process by which harm-related topics experience
semantic expansion to include topics which would not have originally been envisaged to be included under that label. It was first identified by Nick Haslam in 2016, who identified its effects on the concepts of abuse, bullying, trauma, mental disorder, addiction, and prejudice. Others have identified its effects on terms like gaslight and emotional labour.
The phenomenon can be related to the concept of
hyperbole
Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...
.
It has been criticised for making people more sensitive to harms and for blurring people's thinking and understanding of such terms, by categorising too many things together which should not be, and by losing the clarity and specificity of a term.
Although the initial research on concept creep has focused on concepts central to the
political left
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
's ideology, psychologists have also found evidence that people identifying with the
political right
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...
have more expansive interpretations of concepts central to their own ideology (ex. sexual deviance, personal responsibility and terrorism).
[Harper, Purser and Bagueley, Do Concepts Creep to the Left and to the Right? Evidence for Ideologically Salient Concept Breadth Judgments Across the Political Spectrum, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2022, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506221104643 ]
See Also
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Euphemism treadmill
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
*
Victim mentality
Victim mentality is an acquired personality trait in which a person tends to recognize or consider themselves a victim of the negative actions of others, and to behave as if this were the case in the face of contrary evidence of such circumstances ...
References
Definition
Moral psychology
Psychopathology
Suffering
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