Posts Tagged ‘aggression’
CNN: Adult bullying and reality TV
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
Our unhealthy love of reality TV
by Jen Christensen, CNN, Feb. 28, 2013
A red-faced Gordon Ramsay gets nose-to-nose with an older man and shouts, “Wake up!” He calls another chef’s food “rotten.” He reduces a middle-aged woman to hysterical tears. And all that’s just in the opening credits of “Kitchen Nightmares.”
For the next hour of the British culinary icon’s popular reality TV series, there is little in the way of praise or pats on the back for the chefs he’s coaching. Instead, he swears. He throws food. He calls people “stupid” and “disgusting pigs.” His entire performance is based on sharp criticism and what some may argue is bullying-type behavior. Viewers eat it up.
Nightmarish behavior is the stuff reality TV shows are made of. Ramsay is certainly not alone. Tami Roman on VH1′s “Basketball Wives” calls her friends “bitches” and physically attacks one of them in front of a fancy Miami restaurant. A study of the U.K.’s version of “The Apprentice” found it depicted 85 aggressive acts an hour. “American Idol” showed 57 aggressive acts an hour.
Tags: adult bullying, aggression, ostracism, reality TV, workplace bullying
Posted in WBI in the News | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Power and incompetence: The makings of an office bully
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
by Hans Villarica, Medill Wire Service, Oct. 22, 2009
Researchers Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California and Serena Chen of the University of California, Berkeley, found in a series of studies that it is actually the combination of power and incompetence that can result in bad boss behavior. The paper will be published in the November issue of the journal Psychological Science. [FYI, the paper is also described in our article and can be requested from the WBI Research list - A7. ] (more…)
Tags: Adam Galinsky, aggression, bully boss, incompetence, Nathaniel Fast, Ruth McKay, Serena Chen, WBI
Posted in Bullying-Related Research, WBI in the News | 3 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Role of Incompetence of Aggressive Bully Bosses Confirmed
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
At WBI we have always said that the four principal characteristics of bullied targets (from our 2003 online study) posed a threat to bullies — the integrity of independence, possessing more technical skill, being well liked, and acting ethically and honestly. When personally threatened, people tend to get defensive. This seems true in bullying situations at the bully to target, interpersonal, level. Now there is some science to back the common-sense notion.
Tags: aggression, bully boss, incompetence, Nathaniel Fast, Serena Chen, UC Berkeley, USC
Posted in Bullying-Related Research, Employers Gone Wild: Doing Bad Things, Tutorials About Bullying | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
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