Bullies may not just be meanReuters: Brain scans of teens with a history of aggressive bullying suggest that they may actually get pleasure out of seeing someone else in pain... While this may come as little surprise to those who have been victimized by bullies, it is not what the researchers expected...
"The reason we were surprised is the prevailing view is these kids are cold and unemotional in their aggression," said Dr. [Benjamin] Lahey, whose study appears in the journal Biological Psychology...
In the aggressive teens, areas of the brain linked with feeling rewarded became very active when they observed pain being inflicted on others. But they showed little activity in an area of the brain involved in self-regulation.
"It is entirely possible their brains are lighting in the way they are because they experience seeing pain in others as exciting and fun and pleasurable," Dr. Lahey said.
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