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Treating bullying as everyone's problem reduces incidence in primary schools

(phys.org)
175 points PaulHoule | 4 comments | 16 Nov 24 14:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.808s | source
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082349872349872 ◴[16 Nov 24 20:16 UTC] No.42158929[source]▶
1984 (1948), a book written by an author who hadn't had the happiest* boarding school experience, can be read as a story in which we skip the fast-forward (part I) to get to the story-within-a-story (part II) which asks a cliffhanger question:

> deeper than this lies the original motive, the never-questioned instinct that first led to the seizure of power and brought doublethink, the Thought Police, continuous warfare, and all the other necessary paraphernalia into existence afterwards. This motive really consists...

which is answered by O'Brien (in part III):

> ...How does a man assert his power over another, Winston?" Winston thought. "By making him suffer," he said.

* Such, Such Were the Joys (1952)

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77pt77 ◴[16 Nov 24 20:55 UTC] No.42159243[source]▶
> By making him suffer

Nietzsche had written extensively about this way before.

Nowadays we know that humans (and other animals) bully because they derive immense health benefits from being the aggressor.

Those benefits are trivial to detect many decades after the fact.

Until those benefits are offset by a hefty price to pay, nothing will change.

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hiatus ◴[16 Nov 24 21:05 UTC] No.42159320[source]▶
> Nowadays we know that humans (and other animals) bully because they derive immense health benefits from being the aggressor

Which health benefits are those?

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1. iwontberude ◴[16 Nov 24 21:18 UTC] No.42159442[source]▶
I assume by poisoning those around you with cortisol, one becomes (comparitively speaking) less of a fuck up. It’s the Tanya Harding (‘s boyfriend) approach to success.
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2. 77pt77 ◴[17 Nov 24 02:48 UTC] No.42161592[source]▶
Their cortisol levels increase but yours decrease.

It's not merely

> You're now comparatively better because others are now worse.

You are really better in absolute terms at their expense.

These effects last decades!

Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying to you.

replies(1): >>42177717 #
3. iwontberude ◴[18 Nov 24 22:16 UTC] No.42177717[source]▶
I appreciate the italics but usually people making bold claims without sufficient sources are lying to me.
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4. 77pt77 ◴[21 Nov 24 21:13 UTC] No.42208723{3}[source]▶
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1323641111

> Here, we show that victims suffer from greater increases in low-grade systemic inflammation from childhood to young adulthood than are seen in others. In contrast, bullies showed lower increases in inflammation into adulthood compared with those uninvolved in bullying

> Conclusion

>Being bullied is known to have adverse effects on psychological and social development, but it is increasingly being recast as similar to family maltreatment in its potential to disrupt both mental and physical functioning across the lifespan (1, 2). In contrast, bullies experience few downsides and reap biological advantages of increased social status. Social status and disruptions to one’s status may play a central role in physical health functioning through effects on chronic low-grade inflammation, and these effects may persist for decades. Our findings suggest that this mechanism may be a key target for efforts to reduce risk for a bevy of age-related diseases and to promote optimal psychological and physical health functioning.

The literature about this is immense. There are even a couple of studies with monozygotic twins which are notoriously difficult to do.