The Impact of Character Attacks
Eric B. Shiraev, Jennifer Keohane, Martijn Icks, Sergei A. Samoilenko · 2021
Character attacks can be effective if there are no laws to protect the targets of character assassination attempts, so that an attacker can act with impunity. If there are certain legal restrictions, then attacks are likely to be less effective. The political domain includes character attacks associated with politics and political power. Character attacks can change a public official’s grip on power, affect his or her political campaign, or change a balance of power in a city, state, province, or an entire country. Character attacks can produce results that should often be considered in the context of two or several domains at the same time. An institutional change can be linked to political, behavioral, and psychological impacts—all as a result of character attacks. Traditional cultures have a wide variety of characteristics: for example, a combination of high individual scores in filial piety (virtue of respect for one’s parents or elders), conformity, emotional self-control, and humility.