‘Bullying Experiment’ video: What’s wrong with this picture?
The underlying assumption is that the best way to fix a social problem is to shame people into changing.
What’s missing from the picture – any awareness that bullying hurts bystanders too (see this about the work of Prof. Ian Rivers), and not all have the physical or emotional makeup to intervene in situations like the one staged in this video.
What social norms research shows: that making people aware of positive norms changes behavior better than making them aware of hopeless or hurtful situations.
In the comments below it, blended in with criticism of “America” as a whole, many people seem to “applaud the efforts of these two for apparently exposing a serious problem: people just don’t care,” writes Patchin, author and criminology professor at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Patchin shares other problems he has with the video in his blog, including: its unrealistic depiction of bullying (can responses to an unrealistic depiction be representative of reality?); it’s too simplistic (the video fails to acknowledge that what leads people to intervene is complicated, as well as individual and situational); though it seems to be testing for “the bystander effect,” it doesn’t recreate the conditions of the 1964 incident it’s based on (see Patchin’s mention of this).
The possibility that a bullying target’s takeaway from the video would be that “no one out there really cares or is willing to help.” It’s a reasonable (uncritical) takeaway, since it’s the conclusion of the video’s creators. Patchin writes that he worries about a teen who’s “bullied in a more hidden or indirect way, and struggles to explain his or her experiences to a parent or teacher. If a person who directly observes bullying right in front of them doesn’t think it deserves a response, what hope does the teen who suffers in silence have?
Media-based “social experiments” like this illustrate that the critical thinking skills of media literacy and perspective-taking skills of social literacy are needed more than ever. You can see from Professor Patchin’s list of unintended consequences that they’re also protective against misinformation and – for example, with this video – any feelings of cynicism or hopelessness it might elicit. Media and social literacy are baseline online (and offline) safety. The more viral a video goes, the more likely kids will see it. There is no “parental control tool” that can block all problematic videos, so let’s get on with helping them develop the literacies of social media and stop trying to solve social problems, whether online or offline, by spreading judgment, guilt and shame. We know better (see Related links below).
“Of 50 trends in exposure examined, there were 27 significant declines and no significant increases between 2003 and 2011. Declines were particularly large for assault victimization, bullying, and sexual victimization,” according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (I blogged about here). See also this about why kids deserve the truth about cyberbullying.
Patchin and his co-author Sameer Hinduja have just released their first book specifically for teens (they’ve published several for adults about cyberbullying and school climate). Words Wound: Delete Cyberbullying & Make Kindness Go Viral is all about teens’ experiences, with “dozens of stories from teens who have experienced cyberbullying or who have worked in their communities to fight it in creative and effective ways,” Patchin writes about the book, which was released this week.
I’m glad you wrote “The underlying assumption is that the best way to fix a social problem is to shame people into changing.” I was thinking those same things but wasn’t able to put them into words.
Wasn’t telling the bully to stop good enough? Did it have to escalate to a second altercation where the bystander has to defend him or herself?