this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Science

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I didn't change the title, but without access to the original article, it seems like a correlation not causation.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

My guesses are that there ate multiple factors at play:

  • less educated people make more kids
  • "nice guys finish last" - assertive and more socially active people are more likely to find a partner and make children
  • forcing others to follow perceived social dynamics means internal pressure to follow them oneself; having children is a social norm and expectation that is expected to be followed

I'd try and look for papers to see if my guesses hold any water, but time eludes me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago

Rapists are definitely bullies also.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

We have 5 children, I was unaware that we are such terrible stupid people.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Damn, sorry you had to find out like this fam.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Help me, science!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Is doctor girlfriend okay?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Is that the villainess with whom my son has been carousing about?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago

Have you not had your morning coffee yet? 😄 The study purports that bullies have more kids, not that people with more kids were/are bullies. It investigated the relation in one single direction, not both.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Daily reminder that correlation isn't all or nothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

Daily reminder for me not to forget the sarcasm tag

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I think being assertive and more socially active meaning you're more likely to be a bully is a bit of a myth. Although the cliché school or work bully may be assertive and socially active, there are many unpopular and awkward people who bully those around them, and it just goes unnoticed.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

I think being assertive and more socially active meaning you're more likely to be a bully is a bit of a myth.

You are reversing the implication that I'm guessing 😉

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Nobody cares when losers bully each other...

Society only cares about good looking and or rich people

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

having children is a social norm and expectation that is expected to be followed

Global Fertility rates tell a different story

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

No, it doesn’t. At all. Having children is definitely the norm, with the average woman having over 2 children across the world right now.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Is this evopsych bullshit?

"This study shows us that bullying seems to be associated with some meaningful outcomes that help explain why kids do it," Volk says. "This isn't just 'broken kids' doing bad behavior; it's getting them important things that matter."

Yeah, same as bandits.

Volk says the results support the idea that adolescent bullying is, at least in part, an evolutionary adaptation that may help individuals pass on their genes to future generations.

Yep, evopsych bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

Wouldn't surprise me. Unfortunately the study is behind a paywall.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

At least they managed to avoid mentioning “modules”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

calling this evopsych is like calling freud the father of psychology

this is just them saying something that they like the sound of, humans are fundamentally an extremely social species and there are way more things that go into passing on our genes than just having kids; being celibate and just raising the kids of your siblings is more efficient at spreading your genes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

I guess a purely statistical consequence of this would be that the typical child has a greater-than-random chance of having a bully parent, and that chance increases with the number of siblings.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

Each has a strong inverse relationship with socioeconomics.

NoteI am not saying being poor makes a kid a bully. My parent was poor and I only ever bullied bullies (and stopped when they stopped).

It’s just a nondescript statistical relationship. As to why it exists, I don’t know. My guess is greater baseline stress, less emotional support, and higher chance of domestic violence.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

The study seems to mention that the bullies have children at an earlier age. I'd be willing to guess that the relation between having more children and bullying is purely correlative and that neither factor has any direct impact on the other. Instead, it seems significantly more likely that impulsiveness drives both bullying behavior and unsafe sex, which then leads to more children.

It seems somewhat odd to me that, instead of addressing possible mechanisms of this correlation, the authors talk about how bullying is an evolutionary trait to pass on genes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

It seems somewhat odd to me that, instead of addressing possible mechanisms of this correlation, the authors talk about how bullying is an evolutionary trait to pass on genes.

Yeah, that's why I want to get my hands on the study. Maybe the authors did consider that but the article is misrepresenting the study.