Minimisation (psychology)

Minimisation is a type of deception involving denial coupled with rationalisation in situations where complete denial is implausible. It is the opposite of exaggeration.

Words associated with minimisation include:
 * discounting
 * meiosis
 * trivialisation
 * understating

Minimization may take the form of a manipulative technique:
 * observed in abusers and manipulators to downplay their misdemeanors when confronted with irrefutable facts.
 * observed in abusers and manipulators to downplay positive attributes (talents and skills etc) of their victims and facilitate victim blaming.

A variation on minimisation as a manipulative technique is "claiming altruistic motives" such as saying "I don't do this because I am selfish, and for gain, but because I am a socially aware person interested in the common good".

Minimization may also take the form of cognitive distortion:
 * that avoids acknowledging and dealing with negative emotions by reducing the importance and impact of events that give rise to those emotions.
 * that avoids conscious confrontation with the negative impacts of one's behavior on others by reducing the perception of such impacts.
 * that avoids interpersonal confrontation by reducing the perception of the impact of others' behavior on oneself.
 * observed in victims of a trauma to downplay that trauma so as to avoid worry and stress in themselves and others.

Examples

 * saying that a taunt or insult was only a joke
 * including the words "just" or "only" and claiming it was an accident in a reply such as "I only brushed his shoulder by mistake" when accused of injuring somebody
 * a customer receiving a response to a complaint to a company for poor service being told that complaints like his from other customers were very rare when in fact they are common.