Bullying and conformity

Conformity and cliquiness can create cruelty by amplifying social pressures to fit in, dehumanize outsiders, and enforce group norms through exclusion or public shaming. When individuals conform to group expectations—especially in high-stakes environments like schools, workplaces, or online communities—they may suppress their own judgment to avoid isolation. This is exemplified in psychological experiments like Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies and Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, where ordinary people committed acts of cruelty simply by following roles or orders, demonstrating how situational power and conformity can override personal morality.

Cliquiness intensifies this effect by creating in-groups and out-groups, where loyalty to the group becomes paramount. As Henri Tajfel’s social identity theory shows, even arbitrary categorization into groups can trigger favoritism toward one’s own group and hostility toward others. This dynamic fuels discrimination, bullying, and public humiliation—acts that are often justified as “keeping the group in line” or “maintaining standards.” In modern contexts, this plays out in viral online shaming, toxic workplace cultures, or elite social circles that exclude or mock those who don’t conform.

The performance of emotional dominance, as described by Professor RJ Starr, turns cruelty into a spectacle: the aggressor gains status, the audience feels a sense of superiority, and the target is stripped of dignity. This cycle is reinforced when humiliation is rewarded—through likes, clout, or social approval—making cruelty not just acceptable, but desirable. Over time, this erodes empathy, normalizes cruelty, and creates environments where dissent is punished and vulnerability is punished with mockery.

Ultimately, conformity and cliquiness create cruelty not through malice alone, but through the erosion of individuality, the normalization of exclusion, and the institutionalization of emotional dominance—all of which are sustained by the desire to belong and the fear of being left out.