Why Do People Enjoy Public Shaming?

Public shaming is rarely driven by justice alone. More often, it satisfies the human ego: the desire to feel morally superior, belong to a crowd, and forget one’s own flaws. What changed from ancient Rome to the digital age is not human nature—it is merely the arena.

Core Takeaways

Public shaming is an ancient human instinct disguised as justice.
The internet has replaced the Roman arena; humiliation has replaced blood.
Crowds often seek moral superiority more than truth.
Exposing someone’s shame harms innocent families as well as the individual.
Every Abrahamic tradition condemns humiliation while honoring mercy and concealment.

An Ancient Habit We Never Abandoned

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that public shaming is not merely an ancient habit—it is an ancient pleasure that humanity has never surrendered. Civilization has abandoned countless customs over the centuries. We no longer gather in public squares to watch executions, celebrate conquest with spectacles of blood, or applaud violence as entertainment. Yet one primitive instinct has survived remarkably well: the desire to witness another human being humiliated before a crowd.

Maybe that is because some pleasures do not disappear with progress. They simply change their costume. We often see scenes from ancient Rome in films: thousands of spectators roaring with delight as tigers attack gladiators or wounded fighters struggle for their lives. The louder the suffering, the greater the applause. Now look at a modern workplace. A frightened employee is being publicly humiliated by a manager. Instead of intervening, several colleagues quietly raise their phones and begin recording.

Do you notice how little has changed? The Roman arena became the internet. The tiger became the smartphone. The blood is gone—but the victim’s dignity is what now spills onto the ground. The gladiator no longer dies. Something far more valuable often does: our humanity.

Digital Pollice Verso

Ancient Rome had a famous gesture known as pollice verso. Before delivering the final blow to a defeated gladiator, the victorious fighter would turn toward the emperor. The emperor’s thumb determined whether mercy or death would follow. Today, emperors have disappeared. Or perhaps they haven’t. Every time we press Record or Share, we inherit the emperor’s gesture. We pronounce judgment before knowing the whole story. We become jury, executioner, and audience simultaneously.

Modern humanity may be more ruthless than Rome for one simple reason: its punishments are nearly permanent. A disgraced gladiator could leave the city and begin again elsewhere. A victim of online humiliation carries a searchable past that follows them into every interview, every friendship, every future opportunity. We know this perfectly well—and still we share.

Why Do People Shame Others?

The simplest answer is unsettling. Because they can. Psychology offers many explanations, but beneath them all lies something older: the ego’s appetite for domination. Mature souls gradually learn to restrain that impulse. Others nurture it until cruelty begins to resemble virtue. From my own observations, people shame others for several reasons.

To feel morally superior

Publicly exposing another person’s failure creates the comforting illusion that we ourselves stand on higher ground. The faster we condemn, the more righteous we appear.

To belong to a crowd

Outrage is deeply social. When thousands condemn together, individuals experience belonging disguised as morality. Agreement becomes a substitute for conscience.

To silence their own flaws

Nothing distracts the human heart from its own imperfections quite like another person’s scandal. Looking outward is often easier than looking inward.

To feel safe

As long as someone else occupies the place of the condemned, we experience relief. The crowd always believes the last place belongs to someone else.

For influence

In the digital economy, outrage attracts attention. Followers multiply faster through humiliation than through compassion, and many know it.

Simply for pleasure

This is the darkest possibility. Some people derive genuine enjoyment from seeing another human being diminished. Such pleasure should concern us not merely morally, but spiritually.

Whatever the motivation, every Abrahamic tradition condemns the public humiliation of others—not because human reputation is sacred, but because human dignity is.

“To expose another’s fault is often less about helping them than feeding one’s own pride. Love does not delight in public disgrace; it seeks restoration.” — St. John Chrysostom

“Whoever searches obsessively for the faults of others only multiplies blindness toward their own.” — Ali ibn Abi Talib

“Humiliating another person publicly is as though shedding their blood.” — Talmud, Bava Metzia 58b

“Justice seeks order and virtue; it does not hunger for humiliation.” — Marcus Aurelius (paraphrased)

Justice Is Not the Same as Humiliation

Do we really need sacred texts to tell us this? When someone is publicly disgraced, have we forgotten that they have children? Parents? A spouse? Friends who must carry that same wound? If covering a person’s fault can preserve both a soul and a community, how can exposing it for entertainment be anything other than violence against society itself?

This is not compassion. It is cruelty wearing the mask of justice. And the ancient challenge still echoes across centuries:

Let the one without sin cast the first stone.

Before pressing Share, perhaps the better question is not What did they do? but Who am I becoming?

What Would God Do Instead?

God created humanity fully aware of what humanity would become. Nothing surprises Him. Yet despite knowing every failure, He does not expose us instantly. He grants time. He postpones judgment. He covers more faults than we can possibly count. If every heartbeat, every memory, every breath, and every moment of safety depends upon His sustaining mercy, then gratitude and repentance become daily necessities rather than occasional virtues. The astonishing question is not why God delays punishment. The astonishing question is why human beings are so impatient to punish one another.

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail; they are new every morning.” — Lamentations 3:22–23

“Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” — Romans 2:4

God’s response to human failure is astonishingly patient. Why is ours so eager to expose?

“If Allah were to punish mankind immediately for their wrongdoing, He would not leave a single living creature upon the earth; but He grants them respite until an appointed time.” — Qur’an 16:61

The Story of Deaf Ahmed

Let me leave philosophy for a moment and tell you a story that has survived for centuries.

Ahmed earned his living selling rope and cloth. One day, an elderly widow entered his small shop. As she bent over to examine the fabrics, she accidentally passed gas. Instantly her face flushed with unbearable embarrassment. Ahmed noticed everything. Rather than pretending nothing had happened, he did something far more beautiful. He immediately placed his hands beside his ears and loudly said,

“Pardon me? Could you speak a little louder? My hearing is poor.”

He pretended to be deaf. The woman relaxed, believing he had heard nothing. She finished her shopping and left with her dignity intact. But Ahmed feared something else. What if, years later, she wondered whether he had merely pretended not to hear? So he continued acting deaf—not for a day, but for nearly twenty years, until the woman died. He accepted an entirely new identity simply to ensure that one stranger would never relive a single moment of shame. From that day forward, people called him Deaf Ahmed.

That is mercy.

Not because the woman deserved special treatment, but because every human being deserves to leave a room with their dignity unbroken. Now think again of the finger that eagerly presses Share. Which world would you rather belong to?