Derogation

Derogation refers to the act of belittling, disparaging, or demeaning someone or something as being of low importance or value. To derogate someone is to treat them without respect to enhance our own perceived status or to maintain a positive self-image. Derogation is a topic of research in social psychology, evolutionary psychology, and personality psychology. Our motivations for doing this can be:

• Competitor derogation makes us appear superior or more desirable in comparison.
• Maintaining self-esteem by protecting or boosting our self-esteem by devaluing others. 
• Intergroup conflict, where an outgroup’s derogating members maintains in-group’s positive image.
• Mating competition, enhancing our attractiveness to potential mates by derogating rivals derogating attractiveness by devaluing rivals’ appearance.
• Derogation of victims by perceiving victims’ suffering as having to do with their own flaws.
• Derogation of alternatives devalues the attractiveness of potential partners to maintain a current relationship.
• Do-gooder derogation negatively perceives someone for their morally motivated behavior.
• Self-derogation belittles ourself to be a coping mechanism for anxiety or low self-esteem.