DARVO

[[File:Protecting gays is NOT persecuting Christians.png|thumb|right|165px|An illustration of DARVO in action]]
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'''DARVO''' is an acronym that stands for '''deny, attack, reverse victim and offender'''. 

Here's a hypothetical scenario, using [[Christian]]-backed [[Homophobia|anti-gay]] rhetoric as an example:

#'''Deny''': Christians don't hate [[gays]]. Christians love everyone. We just want everyone to have the love of the [[Lord]]. This phase corresponds to [[gaslighting]].<ref>[https://www.narcissisticabuserehab.com/darvo/ How Narcissists Use DARVO to Escape Accountability] by Manya Wakefield (Apr 30, 2020) ''Narcissistic Abuse Rehab''.</ref><ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2017.1320777 Perpetrator Responses to Victim Confrontation: DARVO and Victim Self-Blame] by Sarah J. Harsey et al. (2016) ''Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma'' 26(6): 644-663. doi:10.1080/10926771.2017.1320777.</ref> (Very similar is "hate the sin, love the sinner", while very clearly not doing the latter.)
#'''Attack''': You only think otherwise because of the [[fake news]] pushed by the corrupt, [[atheist]] [[media]] that tries to slander Christians.
#'''[[Blaming the victim|Reverse victim and offender]]''': We need to stand up to the [[Homosexual agenda|gay lobby]] pushing their agenda down our throats.

Note that even if people don't buy DARVO propoganda, they could still fall into the trap of [[balance fallacy]], thus reducing the responsibility of the perperator due to DARVO techniques.

==Origins and research==
[[Psychologist]] {{wpl|Jennifer Freyd}} coined the term in her 1997 study "Violations of power, adaptive blindness, and betrayal trauma theory"<ref>[https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/articles/freyd97r.pdf Violations of power, adaptive blindness, and betrayal trauma theory] by Jennifer J. Freyd (1997) ''Feminism & Psychology'', 7:22-32.</ref> to explain how perpetrators of unequivocally bad things (e.g., [[sexual assault]]) paint themselves as victims and their victims as the ones in power.

In a 2017 study which aimed to test whether DARVO is an [[empirical]]ly strong method of classification, the researchers concluded that:<ref>[http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html What is DARVO?] by Jennifer J. Freyd</ref><ref>[http://archive.is/lXK6q Perpetrator Responses to Victim Confrontation: DARVO and Victim Self-Blame] by Sarah J. Harsey (2017) ''Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma'' 26(6):644-663. doi:10.1080/10926771.2017.1320777.</ref>
{{cquote|(1) DARVO was commonly used by individuals who were confronted; (2) women were more likely to be exposed to DARVO than men during confrontations; (3) the three components of DARVO were positively correlated, supporting the theoretical construction of DARVO; and (4) higher levels of exposure to DARVO during a confrontation were associated with increased perceptions of self-blame among the confronters. These results provide evidence for the existence of DARVO as a perpetrator strategy and establish a relationship between DARVO exposure and feelings of self-blame. Exploring DARVO aids in understanding how perpetrators are able to enforce victims' silence through the mechanism of self-blame.}}

==See also==
*[[Blaming the victim]]
*[[FUD]]
*[[Motte and bailey]]
*[[Persecution complex]]
*[[Religious freedom]]

==External links==
*[http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html What is DARVO?], Jennifer J. Freyd at the University of Oregon
*[http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/darvo.htm DARVO] at ChangingMinds.org
*[https://twitter.com/hashtag/DARVO DARVO] on [[Twitter]] — thousands of examples
*[https://psychopathresistance.wordpress.com/tag/darvo/ Tagged DARVO] at PyschopathResistance

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{logfal}}
{{stub|fallacies}}
[[Category:Fallacious arguments]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

Categories: Fallacious arguments, Psychology