‘Every generation has a handful of books that change the way we see ourselves and one another. Bullied belongs among them’ Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Quiet and Bittersweet
‘Rigorous, revelatory, and achingly tender, Bullied is as healing as it is urgent’ Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
From New York Times bestselling author of Presence, renowned social psychologist, and one of the most popular TED speakers of all time Dr Amy Cuddy, a ground breaking exploration of how bullying hijacked our culture, and how social bravery can change it.
When social psychologist Dr Amy Cuddy became the target of a years-long campaign of bullying that unfolded both publicly and within her profession, she found herself asking a question her research had never fully answered: How do ordinary people become part of extraordinary cruelty?
The search for that answer became an investigation into one of the defining social problems of our time. In Bullied, Dr Cuddy draws on her own experience and decades of research to offer a powerful new understanding of how bullying doesn’t simply harm individuals, it reshapes groups, organisations and communities into cultures of cruelty. Bringing together psychology, sociology, history, ethology, and real-world cases, she uncovers the surprisingly predictable patterns that allow bullying to spread, reveals why institutions so often fail to stop it, and explains how ordinary people can become part of sustaining it without ever intending to.
But this is not just a story of harm – it’s a story of hope. Introducing the concept of social bravery, Dr Cuddy shows how small but courageous acts can interrupt bullying before it hardens into culture, restoring trust and altering the course of what everyone else does next.
In Bullied, you’ll discover:
· Why bullying is never one person’s doing and how every response, including no response, shapes the outcome.
· How a campaign of cruelty unfolds – from the first small test to the target’s disappearance.
· Why we struggle to believe what we’re seeing and what that delay hands the bully.
· The surprising science showing how a small minority can change an entire culture.
· How social bravery becomes something practiced together – not risked alone.
Part memoir, part scientific investigation, and part argument for repair, Bullied changes the way we think about bullying, courage, and the role each of us plays in shaping the cultures around us, and offers a hopeful vision of how ordinary courage can become as contagious as cruelty.
‘Rigorous, revelatory, and achingly tender, Bullied is as healing as it is urgent’ Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
From New York Times bestselling author of Presence, renowned social psychologist, and one of the most popular TED speakers of all time Dr Amy Cuddy, a ground breaking exploration of how bullying hijacked our culture, and how social bravery can change it.
When social psychologist Dr Amy Cuddy became the target of a years-long campaign of bullying that unfolded both publicly and within her profession, she found herself asking a question her research had never fully answered: How do ordinary people become part of extraordinary cruelty?
The search for that answer became an investigation into one of the defining social problems of our time. In Bullied, Dr Cuddy draws on her own experience and decades of research to offer a powerful new understanding of how bullying doesn’t simply harm individuals, it reshapes groups, organisations and communities into cultures of cruelty. Bringing together psychology, sociology, history, ethology, and real-world cases, she uncovers the surprisingly predictable patterns that allow bullying to spread, reveals why institutions so often fail to stop it, and explains how ordinary people can become part of sustaining it without ever intending to.
But this is not just a story of harm – it’s a story of hope. Introducing the concept of social bravery, Dr Cuddy shows how small but courageous acts can interrupt bullying before it hardens into culture, restoring trust and altering the course of what everyone else does next.
In Bullied, you’ll discover:
· Why bullying is never one person’s doing and how every response, including no response, shapes the outcome.
· How a campaign of cruelty unfolds – from the first small test to the target’s disappearance.
· Why we struggle to believe what we’re seeing and what that delay hands the bully.
· The surprising science showing how a small minority can change an entire culture.
· How social bravery becomes something practiced together – not risked alone.
Part memoir, part scientific investigation, and part argument for repair, Bullied changes the way we think about bullying, courage, and the role each of us plays in shaping the cultures around us, and offers a hopeful vision of how ordinary courage can become as contagious as cruelty.
Reviews
Every generation has a handful of books that change the way we see ourselves and one another. Bullied belongs among them. Amy Cuddy reveals what has been hiding in plain sight: how one person's cruelty becomes a collective act, why good people get pulled into it, and how social bravery can stop it. Few people could have written this book with Amy's rare combination of scientific authority, hard-won wisdom, and deep humanity. Bullied gives us a new language for understanding one of the defining social problems of our time-and once you see it, you can't unsee it
Amy Cuddy's Bullied is a singular achievement from a singular thinker. As a therapist, I've seen how silence can deepen the wounds of humiliation, sometimes even more than the cruelty itself. With extraordinary psychological insight and unflinching honesty about her own experience, Cuddy reveals that bullying is not just a story about the bully and the bullied, but about everyone watching-and how a single act of bravery can break the cycle. I read it with my heart in my throat. Rigorous, revelatory, and achingly tender, Bullied is as healing as it is urgent