‘Want to know the psychology of bullying and all the motivations behind it? Here are all the reasons of bullying you need to know about.
To understand and combat bullying, you must first know the psychology of it.
Therefore, in this post, you will learn all about the psychology of bullying and all the things that motivate people to bully. Moreover, you will learn the goals and intentions behind it.
Once you learn all about these important facts, you will be better equipped to defend yourself against it.
This post is all about the psychology of bullying so that you become a powerful weapon against any bully who tries to attack you.
The Psychology of Bullying
Straight up. Bullies reap many psychological rewards from bullying their victims. Moreover, it’s those rewards that motivate bullies to bully.
If you’ve fallen victim to bullying, you must know what the motivators for bullying are. Once you know these things, you’ll no longer continue to rack your brain, asking yourself, “Why me?”.
Moreover, any confusion and bewilderment will disappear and you’ll be compelled to stand up for yourself.
7 Things that motivate people to bully
What motivates bullies to bully you? Here are your answers.
1. The Desire for Power, Domination, and control.
Bullies crave power. However, the only way they can get it is by abusing their victims. In other words, the only way they can feel powerful is by dominating and controlling you.
To bullies, it’s an addiction. Power is like a drug to bullies. It gives them a rush but wears off quickly. Therefore, they’ll always come back for more.
You must realize that your bullies will never stop bullying you until you stand up to them.
2. The Psychology of Bullying:
To Cover up Truths that Make Them Uncomfortable.
Bullies may bully you because you may represent facts they don’t like. You may be an authentic person who sees through their bullshit.
Or, you may be the type who tells it like it is. This scares your bullies because there’s a chance you could call them out on their bullshit.
Therefore, they try to intimidate you into staying quiet.
Bullies aren’t concerned with facts. Especially when those facts threaten them.
For instance, let’s say that your bullies have spread all kinds of lies about you. Understand that your bullies already know the truth. Oh, yes!
They’re fully aware that you aren’t who they say you are. However, here’s the thing.
The truth doesn’t fit their narrative. Therefore, they’ll go out of their way to make the falsehoods look true. Realize that your bullies benefit from ruining of your reputation. And they’ll move Heaven and Earth to keep those benefits.
It takes a ton of work to cover up lies and half-truths. Why? Because bullies will tell the first lie and have to put out a second lie to cover up the first.
Then they’ll need to lie a third time to cover up the first two lies about you.
Lies have a way of building. They build so much that it soon becomes hard for the bullies to keep their stories straight. I mean, seriously! After so long and so many lies, who can keep up with all that?
Therefore, the best thing you can do is stay calm and play your hand correctly. Do this and your bullies will eventually spin themselves into their own web and get stuck in it.
Then you can sit back and watch them fall into the trap of their own making.
3. The Psychology of Bullying:
A Bully needs a victim.
Bullies need victims. Why? Because, to appear almighty and powerful, bullies must have someone to subjugate.
If bullies don’t have someone to dominate, they won’t know what to do with themselves. Therefore, don’t be that person.
See the bullying for what it is. It’s only your bullies’ attempts to seem powerful. Then, stand up to them. You must defend yourself, even if you must put up your fists and fight!
Once you begin standing up for yourself, the power dynamic will take a sudden shift.
In other words, you’ll automatically tip the scales of power in your favor. And you will cease to be a victim. Remember that the best way to dis-empower your bullies is to re-empower yourself.
Once you stop being a victim, your bullies will no longer have power over you. As a result, they’ll leave you alone and go search for another victim.
4. Sadism and Schadenfreude.
None of us want to admit that there are such people out in the world. However, there are people who get sick pleasure from another’s suffering.
They get even more pleasure if the sufferer is someone they despise. Therefore, the cold hard truth is that most bullies bully because they enjoy it.
They get their kicks from it. In fact, they relish it! Think about it, if they didn’t enjoy it, they would never bully.
And let’s face it. Nobody does anything of their own free will that they don’t enjoy. Ask yourself this question:
Unless someone held a gun to your head, would you do something- anything at all, that you did not enjoy? You wouldn’t because it goes against human nature.
Therefore, no one does anything unless there is a payoff of some kind in store for them. Most bullies bully because they love to inflict pain on another person.
Realize that to sadistic people, bullying others is like pulling the wings off a ladybug then watching it squirm. Moreover, these types of bullies will come back to bully you again to keep getting that pleasure.
These types of bullies don’t just get their pleasure from bullying you. They also get it from watching you react to the pain.
For instance, psychological bullies will taunt and verbally abuse their targets just to get a reaction from them. The reaction could be crying or anger.
And the more the target looks like they are suffering, the more the bullies harm them. Sadistic bullies are like sharks that smell blood in the water.
5. The Psychology of Bullying:
Fear.
Bullies fear losing power over you. Whether it’s physical attacks or smearing you, every bit of it is proof that they feel threatened.
Moreover, your bullies feel that they’re losing the battle for power or about to lose. Therefore, they double down on attacking you to reinforce their power over you.
They work twice as hard to keep you under their thumb. This often comes in the form of retaliation because you stood up to them.
In other words, you defended yourself. And the only way to discourage you from doing that again is to retaliate with greater force.
Why? Because, you just might start a huge trend and inspire others to stand up to them too. Then, the bullies would lose all respect, status, and authority (power).
6. Resentment and Revenge.
Again. When you defend yourself against a bully’s attacks or demands, you only make them look like punks. This goes double if you do it in front of an audience.
Therefore, this is another reason bullies will retaliate. They do it to punish you. Moreover, this punishment is designed to subdue you and keep you under their power.
To save their “tough” reputations, your bullies must take revenge. Revenge is, is punishment for you and justice for your bullies.
Anytime you stand up to bullies, they will often try to get back at you for it. Understand that bullies are entitled little twits.
They need gratification and satisfaction. And when you refuse to give it to them, they will resent you and desire to punish you for it.
However, don’t cave in. Realize that any time you stand against evil, it always gets worse before it gets better. Therefore, don’t give up. And don’t give in.
Be just as determined to defend yourself as your bullies are to subdue you. In other words, when they double down, so do you.
7. The Psychology of Bullying:
Deception.
Bullies have an image to keep up. And they want to look tough. In other words, the bullies are trying like the devil to cover up the fact that you’re winning the power war against them.
Think about it. If you were truly losing, they would act indifferent toward you. Your bullies wouldn’t need to become aggressive. It wouldn’t be necessary to go on the attack because you would be no threat to them nor the image they portray in public.
Therefore, they wouldn’t give you the time of day. Bullies, particularly those with narcissism, always discard those they deem to be losers.
On the other hand, threats must be contained. Those bullies see as threats are a lot of hard work. They require many attacks for the bullies to restore their power, be that power image, social status, or even physical status.
Therefore, if a bully is incessantly attacking you, it isn’t because there is anything wrong with you. And it isn’t because you’re weak.
It’s because you pose a threat to them somehow. Moreover, that threat may or may not be so obvious. It may be subtle.
For example, the bully may pick up on something that isn’t so visible. Maybe, it’s an inner strength you have that they can’t quite put their finger on.
Nevertheless, you must continue to defend yourself. The last thing you want to do is back down from these assholes.
Continue to stand strong. Refuse to tolerate their abusive behavior. Keep fighting no matter how hard things get.
This post is all about the psychology of bullying to relieve any confusion or bewilderment you may have.
Related posts you’ll enjoy:
1. Why do Bullies Bully? 7 Reasons They Won’t Leave You Alone
2. Why People Bully: 11 Benefits Bullies Reap at Your Expense