Why are people bullies?

           In class today, we began a discussion on bullying that probably has touched us all in one way or another, whether we have been bullied or we have been the bully. Not only has it probably touched us personally, but it has become an extreme issue in the United States and around the world. How do these kids become bullies? Who is the bully and who is the victim? Are some people just born to be bad people? At some point or another, we all have wondered all of these things about bullying. Recently, these questions have become of a particular interest to me. I am currently a teacher’s assistant at a daycare located in Hilliard, Ohio. It has been fascinating to me to see how early bullying is beginning to occur in schools, and how frequent it has become in the very own center I work at. Just a few weeks ago, I witnessed a first grade boy dragging a girl by her coat out in to the mud causing her to lose her pants. After interviews were done with all of the children that participated or witnessed this so-called game of “chase” that these two were involved in, we were able to find out that the boy who had been dragging the girl out in the mud had told another friend (who refused to participate in the bullying) during the game that they should, “Team up, and drag her out in to the mud.” Unfortunately, this has not been the only incident with this particular child trying to get others to partake in his acts of bullying.

My question is, at such a young age, why is he a bully? Where has he learned to be a bully? Was he born to be a bully? An article I found at http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/03/14/are-babies-born-bullies-ubc-study-shows-infants-learn-social-stratification-as-early-as-nine-months/ talks about a study done on babies about bullying. The study had the babies choose between two snacks that they wanted. Then they were shown a video of two bunnies, one who picked the same snack as the baby and one who picked a different snack, and then asked them to pick which bunny was their favorite, in which the baby chose the one who picked the same snack as they did. They also showed a clip of the bunnies bullying each other, and the babies found it amusing when their favorite one bullied the one who picked a different snack than them. The results of this study said that this may not indicate that one was born to be a bully, but that it is in human nature to identify with people who are similar to us. Perhaps the boy who is at my daycare was choosing to bully because he was trying to identify with some of the other boys who were playing, who were also known to be bullies at the school but did not partake in this particular event. However, does identifying with a certain group of people mean that we have to make other people the “out group” and target them because they are different than we are? Questions containing the issues of bullying will continue to go in circles as the cycle of bullying keeps continuing.