Projected Guilt
This is a fairly straightforward concept, and it's not too difficult to explain. It's the idea that one is more likely to assume guilt in another for the flaws and shortcomings one is victim to. The stronger the trait runs in one person, the more willing they are to see it in others, even when there's no evidence the other person behaves in this way at all.
As with everything else, I find it easiest to simplify this into an analogy or metaphor. Jesus talked in parables and it worked great for him, so I'm not gonna knock it.
Say you have two people in a romantic relationship. Perhaps the guy has a history of infidelity in past relationships, and the girl has a strong tendency for deception. He doesn't yet realize how willing she is to lie, even when there's no reason to, and she knows nothing of his unfaithful past. If, for any reason, one is given reason to be suspicious of the other, they'll automatically jump to the conclusion the other is guilty of the sins they're most likely to commit themselves. One evening, the guy finds out his partner wasn't out to dinner with her sister, he's much more likely to assume she was actually cheating on him, even though she has no history of such behavior.
This leads to a fight between our hypothetical lovers. He accuses her of cheating during a confrontation one night, and proceeds to storm out, not telling her where he's going. Perhaps he went to a buddy's house to unwind, spend some time in a non-hostile environment. A few days later when they get together to talk it out, he tells her where he went after the fight, but she immediately disbelieves him. She's inclined to think that he's trying to cover up what he really did afterward, without any real idea what she thinks that may have been. Maybe he went to a bar and got drunk, or went with his friend to a strip club. It doesn't really matter to her, all that she focuses on is the fact that she believes she is being lied to.
Not exactly a healthy model for a relationship, and perhaps a bit extreme, but it adequately illustrates the idea. Because the guy has a history of cheating, it's easy for him to see the same potential in another, even given a lack of supporting evidence. It's how he works, and a human's natural tendency is to assume others work like themselves, because at the core, there's a strong perception that we're each the center of the universe. She can easily see how he might be lying, because after all, that's what she would have done.
This plays out in different ways to varying degrees all the time. Someone who's natural tendency to see others as beneath him is very quick to take any perceived insult as though the other person has a superior attitude. A shameless flirt will assume that smile from the clerk at the gas station is a come-on, even though he's just being courteous. When a thief can't find his watch, he jumps to the assumption that it's been stolen, even though he probably just left it in the car instead of placing it on his nightstand the night before. And so on and son on, ad infinitum, ad absurdum.
There is also an unintended effect of this behavior that, when considered, is very telling. The way an army places defenses always indicates something about their method of attack. When you find that someone is quick to leap to a certain conclusion in the absence of, or sometimes even despite the facts, it's a decent bet that in the same situation, that's what they'd have done themselves. Think about it next time you find yourself making rash assumptions about someone else's behavior.
As with everything else, I find it easiest to simplify this into an analogy or metaphor. Jesus talked in parables and it worked great for him, so I'm not gonna knock it.
Say you have two people in a romantic relationship. Perhaps the guy has a history of infidelity in past relationships, and the girl has a strong tendency for deception. He doesn't yet realize how willing she is to lie, even when there's no reason to, and she knows nothing of his unfaithful past. If, for any reason, one is given reason to be suspicious of the other, they'll automatically jump to the conclusion the other is guilty of the sins they're most likely to commit themselves. One evening, the guy finds out his partner wasn't out to dinner with her sister, he's much more likely to assume she was actually cheating on him, even though she has no history of such behavior.
This leads to a fight between our hypothetical lovers. He accuses her of cheating during a confrontation one night, and proceeds to storm out, not telling her where he's going. Perhaps he went to a buddy's house to unwind, spend some time in a non-hostile environment. A few days later when they get together to talk it out, he tells her where he went after the fight, but she immediately disbelieves him. She's inclined to think that he's trying to cover up what he really did afterward, without any real idea what she thinks that may have been. Maybe he went to a bar and got drunk, or went with his friend to a strip club. It doesn't really matter to her, all that she focuses on is the fact that she believes she is being lied to.
Not exactly a healthy model for a relationship, and perhaps a bit extreme, but it adequately illustrates the idea. Because the guy has a history of cheating, it's easy for him to see the same potential in another, even given a lack of supporting evidence. It's how he works, and a human's natural tendency is to assume others work like themselves, because at the core, there's a strong perception that we're each the center of the universe. She can easily see how he might be lying, because after all, that's what she would have done.
This plays out in different ways to varying degrees all the time. Someone who's natural tendency to see others as beneath him is very quick to take any perceived insult as though the other person has a superior attitude. A shameless flirt will assume that smile from the clerk at the gas station is a come-on, even though he's just being courteous. When a thief can't find his watch, he jumps to the assumption that it's been stolen, even though he probably just left it in the car instead of placing it on his nightstand the night before. And so on and son on, ad infinitum, ad absurdum.
There is also an unintended effect of this behavior that, when considered, is very telling. The way an army places defenses always indicates something about their method of attack. When you find that someone is quick to leap to a certain conclusion in the absence of, or sometimes even despite the facts, it's a decent bet that in the same situation, that's what they'd have done themselves. Think about it next time you find yourself making rash assumptions about someone else's behavior.