I am looking for the term {or would like suggestions for how to express this) for the event when one person in a group is to blame for an event and the whole group gives mainly false confessions, in solidarity.
An example: There are 10 people in a group, and Bill breaks something. The president says "Somebody broke this," and one by one each member of the group volunteers that they did it, so the expected consequences are nullified or spread out.
You could refer to it as "Spartacussing" or "Spartacizing", in reference to the famous scene from the movie Spartacus where an entire captured army shares the punishment for leading a rebellion rather than give up the true leader to suffer by himself. (A clip of this scene is available at youtube.com, and it is referenced as a well-known trope on TVTropes.com.)
I should point out that this is not an established word, but it is likely that a reasonable number of people will recognize the reference.
I think you are referring to the concept of:
Collective punishment/responsibility:
- Penalty applied to each member of a group regardless of a member's involvement in the group's actions and conduct.
(Law Dictionary)
I would say it's called solidarity, but also camaraderie, fellowship, and loyalty might also be good candidates. Some could argue that this behavior is a good example of leadership, and support of that leadership (which points right back to the first 4 things I mentioned).
