learned helplessness

British  

noun

1. the act of giving up trying as a result of consistent failure to be rewarded in life, thought to be a cause of depression

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Example Sentences

With the first wave or two of coronavirus cases, there was a perception that we were collectively working toward an endpoint when this pandemic would be over, notes Michele Ford, a licensed psychologist in private practice and a professor of psychology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. “That endpoint keeps getting pulled away. We’ve been at this so long that people are developing a sense of learned helplessness, and there’s an element of exhaustion. Everybody’s really tired of dealing with this.”

From Seattle Times

Such reactions are a choice, born of willful ignorance and learned helplessness — a choice that may well doom American democracy.

From Salon

The American people must decide whether their rage can be turned to productive or regenerative possibilities, or whether they continue in a state of learned helplessness, shrugging their shoulders as even more of the Trump regime's crimes are revealed.

From Salon

He says England fans of a certain age may also be experiencing "learned helplessness" - a state of mind that occurs when people believe a bad situation is unchangeable.

From BBC

And just because “learned helplessness” — the belief that men are less capable of household tasks or child care because many haven’t had to do them — may make it seem that women are somehow inherently better at it, the truth is we are not.

From Seattle Times