Parenting in the face of social aggression

As a parent, it can be hard to witness the injustices that flow from pack mentality and toxic popularity. The best support you can offer your kids is to help them learn about these difficult dynamics. After all, knowledge is power.

Here is a good starting point: Watch, with them, the Stanley Milgram experiment where regular people inflicted pain on others simply because they blindly obeyed authority. The video is set out below.

Secondly, teach your kids about the dangers of blind conformity by showing them this video: The Asch conformity experiment where people defied their own senses in order to fit in.

Finally, help your kids to learn about the dangers of group dynamics, so they can become fiercely clear about their own sense of self. A great video to watch is the Zimbardo prison experiment where random people brutalized others simply because they were assigned positions of power and relief from feeling less than.

Stay strong. Your kids will thank you in the long run.

Chris Warren-Dickins
Psychotherapist in New Jersey and the United Kingdom