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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Intriguing curse-of-resources analogical theory. Strikes me as right. Fits the cases I am thinking of. twitter.com/alexqgb/status
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Hmm. Nice triangle. My main impulse is savior though I can almost never think of a way to productively intervene.
I’ve never knowingly been the bully, though I’ve been called out on occasion for being pushy. Rarely the victim outside of a couple of minor episodes as a kid. twitter.com/alexqgb/status
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Many theories of crime. One v. strong finding: criminals overwhelmingly likely to have been victimized before adulthood. Strain theory. Agnew was ex's doc advisor.
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All these complicated childhood trauma theories seem a bit roundabout when "it's fun"/"it's rewarding" seems to suffice as an explanation.
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My guess is the "punch down"/"childhood trauma" theory is the alternative explanation put forth by people who *can't* believe some people find bullying fun/rewarding (as in, their worldview won't allow them to believe this as an explanation)
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