Cynicism mentality is a social mentality that arises in the process of modernization. People with this mentality follow the principle of the supremacy of personal interests, and believe in moral nihilism, often show an attitude of seeing through and mocking everything, unprincipled contempt for all moral judgments, and wear a “mask” to live. Cynicism is a negative attitude to life, formed by the combination of China's moral and cultural environment and social problems during the transition period, and this trend of thought may spread like a plague among the masses. At present, the research on cynicism is mainly concentrated in the fields of philosophy and sociology, mainly through speculation to explore this phenomenon. In psychology, distrust and malicious speculation about human nature, organization, social system, and ideology are generally called “cynicism”, which is difficult to accurately describe this social psychological phenomenon and easily confused with other similar concepts. Therefore, we summarize the relevant psychological research on cynicism and divide it into dimensions. We found that previous studies focused on three fields: humanity, system, and morality, and based on this, proposed their respective sub-dimensions.
First, there is the humanity dimension, which has two sub-dimensions: “alienation from others” and “interpersonal masquerading”. There has been a lot of research in psychology on “humanity cynicism”, which generally refers to a negative assessment of the motives and moral character of others, namely the belief that others are “Machiavellians”. This skeptical attitude toward human nature makes it easy for individuals to feel disrespected, lack trust in others, and eventually produce psychological distance, forming a sense of “alienation from others”. In modern society, people cannot avoid necessary communication and cooperation, but one principle of cynicism is “interests first”, which makes them play different roles in different occasions against their will, wear a “mask” to get along with people, and hide their real purpose. It's a negative survival strategy full of pretense.
Second, there is the system dimension, which has three sub-dimensions: “alienation from the system”, “conscious falsity” and “submissive criticism”. In psychology, “system cynicism” refers to an individual’s suspicion or distrust of the social order or status quo (i.e., the state, the economic system, the governing government, the corporate unit or organization, etc.). According to existing psychological theories, cynicism implies a low level of system-justifying belief and political efficacy, a high level of psychological distance from the political community, and a sense of burnout from public affairs. But cynics know how to use the system to obtain their own interests skillfully, and after careful calculation and reflection, they become “exquisite egoists”. When the cynics know that they are powerless and unimportant, they will use negative criticism or sarcasm to relieve the strong external pressure, which is a form of self-defense.
Finally, there is the moral dimension, which has two sub-dimensions: “mocking mainstream values” and “understanding without rejection”. “Moral cynicism” is very similar to moral disengagement, resulting from the failure of individuals to self-regulate in the process of weighing their own interests against moral standards. Moral nihilism allows cynics to deride public order, mainstream discourse, or traditional values, to deny any moral standards, and to stigmatize moral ideals in ways that are not mainstream, leading them to become desensitized to ugly phenomena, to shirk their civic responsibilities, and even to approve of immoral events, even when they may know they are wrong.
Cynicism mentality can be a measure of the health of a society. In the future, the scale can be compiled according to its content structure, and the internal relationship between the three dimensions of humanity, system, and morality can be explored. In addition, it is possible to explore ways to intervene against cynicism, especially by focusing on strengthening the social structure and ultimately weakening its negative effects.
Key words
cynicism mentality /
humanity dimension /
system dimension /
moral dimension
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