• Question: if your a scientsit can you think about doing this for your next research, why do people bully at school is it because your different or just dont look right, can you plz get back to me. thankz peace out!

    Asked by page6 to Chris, Anouk, Judith, Leisha, Seyyed on 19 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by allie1999.
    • Photo: Chris Kettle

      Chris Kettle answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Bullying happens in nature too. It appears to be a way for a group to remove the weakest link. I am sure that there are socail experiemnts underway in various places but I don’t think its is genetics issue. Have a chat with your teahcers about it, they will be able to help and answer these questions I am sure.

    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Bullying at school has always been a problem , but a problem with society not with genetics. I was bullied at school for not fitting in: I was hopeless at sport and, I was told, a bit thick. Took me a very long time to realise it was their problem, not mine. Talking about it with someone you trust definitely helps.

    • Photo: Anouk Gouvras

      Anouk Gouvras answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hi page6, unfortunately this is a problem in most schools and there are already lots of people researching this, mainly psychologists but also geneticists, behaviourists etc
      There is some research claiming that there is a link between genetics and being a victim or being a bully but everyone agrees that environment of both the bully and the victim plays the biggest role. Scientists are trying to work out what causes bullying and how best to prevent it. There seems to be a lot of different causes for it. And bullying isn’t the victims fault so we can’t say its because someone ‘doesn’t look right’. Often bullying can say more about the people doing the bullying than the people being bullied. Sometimes it has to do with the problems the bully has, maybe with self-esteem, maybe at home, maybe at school and they are aggressive and put people down to make themselves feel superior, more powerful or less frightened. Sometimes they have learnt this behaviour from older people (adults or teenagers). Sometimes its a lack of understanding and a fear of the differences in people. There has also been evidence that about 15% of bullies were actually victims of bullying themselves and use bullying others as a way to avoid that happening again.

      It is important for a victim of bullying to go and get help, they can do this by talking to a trusted teacher, an adult or counsellor. Also true for bullies though they are often in denial about being bullies.

      A good site on bullying in schools is http://www.bullying.co.uk/advice/anti-bullying-advice

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