Blog Category

In this blog post, I discuss recent research suggesting that being the victim of bullying can have a long-lasting impact on mental and physical health. But there’s a ray of hope in this literature as well: the lasting impact may depend on the ways that victims cope with being bullied. In November of...

Just about every highschool and college psychology textbook offers extensive coverage of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). The meaning of the SPE seemed obvious — that when given roles with power, people naturally become brutal tyrants. This message has had lasting influence, not only in...

We respond on many levels, like our readers, to the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo staff in France. The human tragedy makes us sad and angry. The moral atrocity screams for outraged condemnation. The sense of threat calls out community determination, courage, and sacrifice. The counter-mobilisation of...

Does Fifty Shades of Grey make you wonder if BDSM is arousing? If women secretly want to be spanked? This post explains how Fifty Shades readers may develop this belief, how it may affect their behavior, and how it may increase sexual aggression against women. Fifty Shades of Grey, the film, is set...

One classic study showed that when children intervene in bullying, it stopped within 10 seconds in 57% of episodes. This clearly speaks to the vital role bystanders play in helping victims of bullying. Nevertheless, only in 15% of the instances, children intervene. Why do some children intervene and...

Throughout the years in which aggression in schools has been researched, one interesting finding has been replicated many times over. That is, that when you ask children ‘what do you think of bullying?', they will reply that it is wrong (e.g., Brown, Birch, & Kancheria, 2005). Yet, statistics on...

Although it is counterintuitive, violence in America today is most likely to occur within the home (Rennison, 2003). Might the origin of violence be within the home as well, specifically the use of physical punishment on children? Public opinion condoning physical punishment in America has been...