Judgment offers catharsis to mask our anxieties.

When one is feeling shame about some aspect of one’s life, finding someone who can be deemed as doing worse elevates a sense of status while also reinforcing that the thing creating anxiety also deserves shame, harming the judge. Primary disruptor of psychological safety.rB1


  1. Brené Brown, Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts (New York: Random House, 2018). (See notes.)