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What’s the best modern theory of what turns people into bullies? Is there any truth to the movie trope that it’s a sort of punch-down cascade due to being abused at home? That seems very unconvincing to me. It feels like at best one kind of etiology that accounts for a fraction.
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I’ve known bullies with mild-mannered weak parents and no visible bigger-bully in their environment. The more plausible general mechanism seems to me to be that people develop an addiction to intimidation/brute force as an easy way to get what they want.
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It’s both. Most of the instances of the behavior can be attributed to personalities pre-disposed to it. Intentional instances that is. Some people are simply unaware of getting their way due to being intimidating.
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I had a bully in elementary school who fit that narrative. All the other bullies I've known are control freaks....er, enthusiasts.
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I think it's about attention hoarding. There's no instance where a person who don't want attention ends up being a bully.
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Bullying can be a function of *high* self esteem (and correlated immature tendency towards entitlement and devaluing of others), which can develop as a defence in an adverse environment or unintentionally fostered by a loving environment, poss. with poor boundaries.
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