The Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Protection
An interdisciplinary team advancing the theory and practice of character assassination and reputation protection through research, education, and risk assessment.
What We Do
CARP’s work is organized around three core areas:
- Research on historical and contemporary cases of character assassination.
- Education for academic and public audiences on causes, consequences, and prevention.
- Risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities and design mitigation strategies for individuals and public figures.
Character Assassination: What Is It?
Character assassination (CA) is the deliberate destruction of a person’s reputation via character attacks—acts that convey alleged or factual claims about someone’s morals, credibility, authenticity, or integrity. CA is both a process (e.g., smear campaigns) and an outcome (damaged reputation).
Tactics range from direct insults and negative ads to rumors, memes, selective “exposés,” and strategic silence. Effects can last a lifetime: careers, networks, and public images can collapse after a single trigger. Understanding CA helps us detect, guard against, and recover from reputational harm across politics, workplaces, classrooms, and digital platforms.
From Fragmented Work to a Field
Once overlooked, CA research is now a fast-growing, interdisciplinary field shaped by global scholarship and recurring conferences.
Early Work
Scholars began addressing CA in the 1950s, but efforts remained scattered for decades as public incivility grew.
2011 Milestone
The first international conference on CA convened in Heidelberg, supported by the EU’s 7th Framework Programme, catalyzing a global network.
Books and Series
Character Assassination throughout the Ages, the Routledge Handbook (2020), and the textbook (2022) anchored the field; a new series with University of Amsterdam Press/T&F expands it further.
The CARP Lab
Established in 2016 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, CARP brings together scholars and practitioners from psychology, history, political science, communication, and public relations to advance theory and applications of CA and reputation protection.
We publish scholarship, edit volumes and special issues, and create public-facing media op-eds, essays, animations, and videos.
Courses Around the World
Programs engage students with research, theory, and practice.
Recent and Ongoing Courses
- Queen’s University Belfast: HIS1003: Ancient Smear (defamation in Greece & Rome).
- George Mason University: Character Assassination & Reputation Management in PR (undergraduate).
- GMU (2025): Character Assassination in Politics.
History
Ancient and early-modern cases illuminate recurring tactics.
Media and Politics
From negative ads to memes and cancel campaigns.
Crisis Response
Detection, protection, and recovery frameworks.
Ethics
Incivility, misinformation, and democratic discourse.
Ongoing Research and Conferences
CARP members presented at Universities of Oxford, Bamberg, Vienna, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Venice (Ca’ Foscari), Tartu, the Institute of World Politics (USA), the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Portuguese Navy Academy, and more alongside affiliated conferences worldwide.
We have organized five international conferences dedicated to CA and reputation management, most recently CARP 5 (March 2025, Arlington, VA).
“Reputations are fragile, attention is fleeting, and image often outweighs substance. Understanding character assassination has never mattered more.”