false consciousness

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun In Marxist theory, a failure to recognize the instruments of one's oppression or exploitation as one's own creation, as when members of an oppressed class unwittingly adopt views of the oppressor class.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Marxism, social sciences A faulty understanding of the true character of social processes, due to ideology