Humiliation and its relationship with bullying victimization: a narrative review
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Abstract
Humiliation is a phenomenon linked to the dynamics of harassment that causes disturbing and traumatic interactions for victims. Therefore, the relationship between humiliation and bullying represents a research topic with significant repercussions for the field of social well-being. The objectives of this work are: to review the concept of humiliation –and its nature– according to the literature on this phenomenon; to review the main consequences derived from the emotional experience of humiliation; and to analyze the relationship between humiliation and bullying victimization. For this purpose, a narrative review has been performed based on a selection of 78 articles. Humiliation has been defined as a self-conscious emotion that appears when an individual is unfairly degraded by others. In humiliating settings, people who internalize a devaluation of the self, and who appraise the situation as unfair, tend to experience higher levels of humiliation. Humiliation has been related to violent behavior driven by retaliation and to states of helplessness that can culminate in suicide. In the context of bullying, hostility increases the perception of unfairness, while social status facilitates the internalization of devaluation. Witnesses play a key role in intensifying humiliation, since the victim perceives the devaluation more unfairly, and the presence of an audience facilitates its internalization. Likewise, actively responding to bullying mitigates the emotional experience of humiliation, due to a greater perception of control. The humiliation resulting from bullying has a negative impact on social well-being, so addressing this phenomenon requires the study of the factors that allow and perpetuate its contingency.
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