The word victim can imply that the person experiencing abuse is powerless and passive. However, some people may feel they need to be labelled as victims in order for their experiences and traumas to be taken seriously by others. This can be problematic, especially when the term is used to describe a child. Using the term survivor instead of victim can help to avoid this issue, as it focuses on a person’s strength, resilience and ability to overcome their trauma.
It is natural for humans to empathise with those who have suffered, and to try to alleviate that suffering. This is why victim signaling — displaying the qualities of someone who has been hurt, damaged or made to suffer — is so effective at garnering resources: it makes us want to help; it confers a sense of legitimacy on those who demand retribution; and it gives people moral standing to speak about their plight.
Yet the compulsion to signal victimhood can also have a negative impact, as it incentivises people to exaggerate their suffering or even fake it. For example, one study found that people were more likely to donate to a GoFundMe campaign that included detailed descriptions of a victim’s past suffering than to a similar campaign without this information. This is a problem because it allows unscrupulous individuals to exploit the kindness and empathy of others by falsely claiming victim status in order to obtain benefits they would otherwise not have been able to attain.
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