Paul R. Nail

Do people use reverse psychology? An exploration of strategic self-anticonformity

This research examined reports of the real-world use of reverse psychology, or what we term strategic self-anticonformity (SSA). In Study 1, participants reported examples in which they engaged in SSA and rated the success and frequency of use of this influence tactic. These data suggested the existence of two forms of SSA, one used as a general persuasion tactic and one used specifically to garner interpersonal reassurance. Study 2 compared the prevalence of these two forms of SSA with the use of three previously established influence tactics (i.e., door-in-the-face, foot-in-the-door, and disrupt-then-reframe). The results suggest that SSA is a prevalent, real-world influence tactic deserving of further study.

Defensive Egotism and Bullying: Gender Differences Yield Qualified Support for the Compensation Model of Aggression

According to the compensation model of aggression (Staub, 1989), some people bully to defend against their own feelings of weakness and vulnerability. Classmates and teachers rated a sample of American sixth graders in terms of trait: defensiveness (i.e., defensive egotism), self-esteem, bullying, and related behaviors. Consistent with the model, students’ peer- and teacher-rated defensive egotism were positively associated with bullying and physical and social aggression, respectively. Students’ peer- and teacher-rated self-esteem was negatively correlated with bully victimization and positively correlated with defending victims. Some findings were qualified by regression analyses using personality, gender, and their interaction as predictors of focal behaviors. The positive association between defensive egotism and bullying held only for boys; yet, at higher defensive egotism, girls were more socially aggressive than boys. The findings, along with previous research, suggest that bullying-reduction programs in schools include a component on the personality and motivational dynamics of bullies, victims, and victim defenders.

Defensive egotism and self-esteem: A cross-cultural examination of the dynamics of bullying in middle school

Abstract The revised compensation model of aggression posits that bullying is driven by defensive personality, not low self-esteem. Supporting research has failed to distinguish bullies vs. bully-victims (i.e., bullies who are also victims). In three studies with middle school students on two continents, pure bullies and bully-victims scored higher in defensive egotism than pure victims and controls but, unexpectedly, did not differ from each other. Low self-esteem was linked with victimization, high self-esteem with defending victims. Boys were higher than girls in bullying and physical aggression; girls were higher in social than physical aggression. Part of the lack of success of anti-bullying programs may be their failure to accommodate different types of bullies and different forms of bullying.

Introduction to special issue on bullying: A social influence perspective

Bullying is a complex social phenomenon that crosses age, ethnicity, and national boundaries. Originally coined as “mobbing,” by Olweus in 1972 (Espelage & Swearer, 2003), bullying tends to involve a bully, a victim, and other individuals in a variety of roles that can take the form of an active presence (e.g., bully assistant or victim defender), a passive presence (e.g., bystander), or even a perceived presence (e.g., peer attitudes). Interestingly, these roles tend to be dynamic in that it is not uncommon for an individual to take on different roles from one situation to the next (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Research on bullying during the past 40 years has provided considerable insight into this phenomenon, but many questions still remain about how we identify bullying, the consequences of such behavior on those involved, and the most effective means to reduce bullying. This special issue of Social Influence, dedicated to bullying, responds to some of these unknowns by including a broad range of conceptual and empirical articles describing how social influences are related to the attitudes and/or behaviors of those who take on various roles in a bullying situation.