National Blame Someone Else Day (February 13th, 2026)

Quick facts
When is it?	September 13th, 2013 June 13th, 2014 February 13th, 2015 May 13th, 2016 January 13th, 2017 April 13th, 2018 September 13th, 2019 March 13th, 2020 August 13th, 2021 May 13th, 2022 January 13th, 2023 September 13th, 2024 June 13th, 2025 February 13th, 2026 August 13th, 2027
What's the date pattern?	First Friday the 13th of the year
Tagged as:	Attitudes & Emotions People & Relationships Silly & Humorous
What's the hashtag?	#NationalBlameSomeoneElseDay
We first published this page on:	Dec 23rd, 2017
We last updated this page:	Jan 18th, 2026

Contents

National Blame Someone Else Day is the compulsive liar’s dream day! It allows for an entire 24-hours’ worth of constant finger pointing at unsuspecting victims. It’s a day that could make a nagging mother-in-law think twice about badgering anyone ever again.

That’s right–it’s time for National Blame Someone Else Day!

National Blame Someone Else Day Timeline

c. 538 BCE

Biblical “Scapegoat” Ritual Described

The Book of Leviticus describes the Yom Kippur ritual in which a goat bearing the community’s sins is sent into the wilderness, giving rise to the term “scapegoat” for someone unfairly blamed.

1894–1906

The Dreyfus Affair Highlights Wrongful Blame

French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus is unjustly convicted of treason while the real culprit, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, goes free; his eventual exoneration exposes systemic scapegoating and antisemitism.

1958

Fritz Heider Formalizes Attribution Theory

Psychologist Fritz Heider publishes “The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations,” laying the groundwork for attribution theory and explaining how people decide whether to blame situations or personal traits.

1974

Fundamental Attribution Error Identified

Lee Ross coins the term “fundamental attribution error,” showing that people tend to blame others’ character while underestimating situational factors, a key insight into everyday blame and judgment.

1970s–1997

UK Miscarriages of Justice Spur Reform

Cases like the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, where innocent people were imprisoned for IRA bombings, lead to the creation of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997 to re-examine wrongful blame.

2009

Brain Networks for Blame Mapped

Neuroscientists use fMRI to show that fronto-temporoparietal brain regions are activated when people assign causal responsibility, distinguishing between self-blame and blaming others.

2013

“Irrational Blame” Analyzed in Philosophy

A widely cited paper in philosophy and psychology literature characterizes irrational blame as hostile negative emotion plus a sense of entitlement to it, even when the target is not truly at fault.

How to Celebrate National Blame Someone Else Day

Who would have thought that being in denial can be a cause for celebration? Celebration of this day could include a variety of interesting activities! Try out these ideas or come up with some others:

Play Board Games That Reveal Who to Blame

Play a classic whodunit role-play game with friends and see who breaks down in tears first! The board game, Clue, is a fun game that can result in blaming someone.

Blame Space is a card game that is mean-spirited and petty, and the only way to win is to blame someone else. Another board game that goes along these lines is called Pass The Blame.

One other fun option is a role-playing game that focuses on life in the Medieval court, called Game of Blame, where participants bury secrets, blame others, and dodge responsibility for bad things that happen.

Any and all of these games could be loads of fun so grab some friends or family members and enjoy blaming each other using these games!

Watch a Film About Blaming Someone Else

Mysteries and thrillers are often all about discovering who is actually responsible for a particular action or crime. Try watching these films that use blame shifting as a form of getting away with something:

The Fugitive (1993). In this action film, the wife of a prominent doctor is brutally murdered and he is blamed for it. Based on the 1960s television series of the same name, this film stars Harrison Ford as he tries to prove his innocence as he is chased by a relentless US Marshall, played by Tommy Lee Jones.
The Lie (2018). When a young girl kills a friend by pushing her into an icy river, her parents will stop at nothing to protect her from taking the blame. This Canadian-American psychological horror film is a remake of a German film from 2015, titled We Monsters.
Blame Game/Das End Der Wahrheit ( 2019). This German psychological and political thriller offers a fictional peek into the inside game of politics, particularly related to intelligence agencies and how they interact with one another.
Gone Girl (2014). This American thriller film features Ben Affleck as a husband whose wife disappears, and the story unfolds over who is to blame.

Use the Excuse That Mercury is in Retrograde

Those who are looking for an ongoing, regular excuse to blame someone (or something) else, may find that this is the perfect day for it!

If there’s no actual person to blame for mistakes, try using a simple line about Mercury being in retrograde. This happens a few times a year when the planet, Mercury, tends to be moving in an opposite direction to the planet Earth. Astrologists tend to think this is a time for bad luck to happen.

Since most people don’t even really know what it really means for Mercury to be in retrograde, simply use the phrase as an excuse for whatever problems might come into play on National Blame Someone Else Day! It might not even be true, but who is going to know?

Make a Blame Someone Else Playlist

The perfect soundtrack to the day would include all kinds of songs about how “it’s not my fault” or some other lyrics along the theme of blaming someone else. Try creating a National Blame Someone Else Day playlist on Spotify or some other music platform. Get started with these song ideas:

Blame it on the Rain (1989) by Milli Vanilli
Don’t Blame Me (2017) by Taylor Swift
Bang and Blame (1994) by R.E.M.
Blame It On My Youth (2019) by Blink-182

Create Clever Hyjinx and Blame Someone Else!

Invite the family over, then spike their drinks and blame the granny. Or loosen the screws on everyone’s chairs and blame the children. Pour chocolate mousse in people’s shoes and blame the dog… the possibilities are endless!

Just remember, at the stroke of midnight, the amnesia will wear off, and those fingers will be hurting from all that pointing. Not only that, but friends are likely to get revenge because they were unfairly set up!

So be sure to celebrate National Blame Someone Else Day with just the smallest hint of caution, since it could mean that someone else could eventually turn around and blame something on you!

History of National Blame Someone Else Day

This momentous occasion for people to lie through their teeth and pretend they were struck with a sudden, 24-hour long spell of amnesia, takes place on the first Friday the 13th of every year.

The blame can be pinned on anyone preferred, but remember that at the stroke of midnight, much like Cinderella, people will be turned back into their old selves again!

But, no matter what happens, the brief madness of this particular day can be blamed on Anne Moeller in Michigan, who started the trend in 1982 as an excuse for not keeping her appointments on the fateful day of Friday the 13th. (To be honest, it was really the fault of her alarm clock that didn’t go off, which set off a chain of events that day that all turned into a large amount of bad luck!)

From Ms. Moeller’s deep desire to make all of the bad luck of her day someone else’s fault spawned this lighthearted, silly day that adds a little bit of interest to life. It’s time to celebrate National Blame Someone Else Day!

Facts About National Blame Someone Else Day

Blame-Shifting Is Tied to the Self-Serving Bias

In social psychology, people commonly explain their successes as due to internal qualities (like talent or effort) while blaming failures on external forces such as other people or bad luck; this pattern is known as the self-serving bias and has been observed across cultures and age groups, especially when a person’s self-esteem feels threatened.

Scapegoating Has Ancient Ritual Roots

The term “scapegoat” comes from a ritual described in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Leviticus, where the community’s sins were symbolically placed onto a goat that was then driven into the wilderness; historians and anthropologists note that similar practices of transferring blame or impurity onto animals or individuals appear in a variety of ancient societies.

Organizations Use “Blame Cultures” and “Just Cultures”

In safety-critical industries like aviation and healthcare, researchers distinguish between “blame cultures,” where individuals are punished for errors, and “just cultures,” which emphasize learning from mistakes; studies show that environments focused only on blame discourage error reporting and can actually increase the risk of future accidents.

Children Learn to Deflect Blame Surprisingly Early

Developmental psychologists have found that by around age three to four, many children already engage in rudimentary blame-shifting—denying responsibility or accusing others to avoid punishment—demonstrating that concern for reputation and consequences, not just simple honesty, shapes how even young kids explain their misbehavior.

Defensive Attributions Protect People From Feeling Vulnerable

According to defensive attribution theory, observers often blame victims for their misfortunes—especially when they believe they would have acted differently—because it reassures them that similar bad things are unlikely to happen to them, a pattern documented in classic experiments on reactions to accidents and assaults.

Blame Games Slow Problem-Solving in Teams

Research on teamwork and organizational behavior shows that when groups focus on assigning fault instead of analyzing causes, they spend more time defending themselves than sharing information, which reduces creativity, harms trust, and leads to poorer decisions compared with teams that emphasize joint responsibility and solutions.

Social Media Can Amplify Public “Pile-On” Blame

Communication scholars note that platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook can rapidly escalate blame toward individuals or organizations during crises, as users retweet accusations faster than corrections; studies of viral scandals show that once blame narratives take hold online, they can damage reputations even after factual clarifications appear.

National Blame Someone Else Day FAQs

Why do people so often blame others instead of taking responsibility?

Psychologists note that blaming others can protect a person’s self-esteem and reduce feelings of guilt or shame in the short term, because it shifts attention away from their mistakes.

However, this “self-serving bias” makes it harder to learn from errors and can damage trust with others over time.

Is blaming someone else ever psychologically healthy?

Occasionally recognizing outside factors—such as bad luck or unfair systems—can prevent people from internalizing all failure and developing depression or low self-worth.

Experts emphasize, though, that mentally healthy coping balances this with “internal” responsibility, acknowledging what a person can change while not assuming every negative event is their personal fault.

How does constant blame-shifting affect close relationships?

Chronic blame-shifting in families, friendships, or romantic relationships tends to create a cycle of defensiveness and conflict; one person feels attacked, the other feels misunderstood, and problems rarely get resolved.

Marriage and family therapists report that couples who improve most in counseling usually move from blaming each other toward describing their own feelings and specific behaviors they can each change.

What is the difference between explaining behavior and making excuses?

An explanation identifies causes for a behavior in order to understand and improve it, while still accepting responsibility for its impact. An excuse, by contrast, uses those causes to avoid accountability or consequences.

Ethicists point out that, for example, stress may explain why someone snapped at a coworker, but it does not remove the obligation to apologize or repair the harm.

Are some cultures more likely to “take the blame” than others?

Cross-cultural research finds that people in more individualistic cultures, such as the United States, are somewhat more likely to credit themselves for success and blame situations for failure.

In more collectivistic cultures, like Japan or Korea, people more often downplay individual success and may accept more personal blame to preserve group harmony, even when circumstances contributed heavily to the outcome.

How does social media influence our tendency to blame others?

Studies of online behavior show that social media can intensify “outrage culture,” where users quickly assign blame based on limited information and then move on to the next controversy.

This environment rewards simple, emotionally charged accusations over nuanced explanations, which can make it harder for people to admit uncertainty or partial responsibility.

What role does blame play in legal and justice systems?

In legal systems, blame is formally assigned through concepts like guilt, liability, and negligence, based on evidence and defined standards rather than emotion alone.

Criminal law focuses on blameworthy intent and actions, while civil law often looks at who is responsible for harm and who should provide compensation, even if no one meant to cause damage.