14 DAY TRIAL // Bullying seems to have really taken off these days, yet more often than not people tend to pity the victim. A new study claims that, all things considered, both the victim and the abuser regard such incidents as unpleasant ones, and even experience equally intense negative emotions.
The only difference is that, while the victims get to feel anger, the so-called ostracizers are affected by both feelings of shame and negative emotions having to do with their losing their sense of connection with the people around them.
Furthermore, the latter also experience a loss of autonomy, seeing how their bullying and excluding others is a direct result of their abiding by various social stigmas, EurekAlert! Explains.
As Richard Ryan, now a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester puts it, “In real life and in academic studies, we tend to focus on the harm done to victims in cases of social aggression.”
Still, “This study shows that when people bend to pressure to exclude others, they also pay a steep personal cost. Their distress is different from the person excluded, but no less intense.”