Resist or avoid? Sad study suggests bullying victims are on their own either way

By Alex Fradera Workplace bullying can corrode organisations and wreck individual lives. Research has revealed more and more about effects on victims and the motives of the perpetrators. But bullying is often a performance that demands an audience: you can’t ostracise someone from an empty room, or gossip about them to the wind. So it’s worth looking at the third ingredient in the bullying mix: the bystander. New research in the Journal of Social Psychology takes on this task, looking at the factors that dispose a bystander against bullying victims, and what might encourage them to step in and help. Researchers from the Netherlands-based Open University recruited 161 working adults and presented each with a hypothetical workplace vignette, in which the victim was interrupted, belittled, excluded and gossiped about by a bullying colleague. In one condition, the victim was proactive, daring the bully to criticise them to their face or demanding they cease their behaviour. In another, the victim avoided the situation, by skipping out when the bully entered a room, or by taking sick leave to avoid work entirely. The participants were cast as bystanders to these contrasting situations, and Roelie Mulder’s team predicted that they would have a more negative view of the avoidant victims. Stigma research shows that people are less sympathetic to the suffering of others when they perceive they haven’t taken opportunities to improve their situation. Consistent with this, parti...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: bullying Occupational Social Source Type: blogs