People treat others poorly to regulate their own negative self-feelings
Multiple studies demonstrate that individuals often engage in aggression, bullying, or mistreatment toward others as a defensive or retaliatory response to regulate their own negative self-feelings, stress, and diminished self-esteem.
The retrieved literature consistently supports the psychological premise that interpersonal mistreatment and aggression (such as cyberbullying, relational aggression, and retaliatory impulses) are frequently driven by underlying threats to the self, such as low self-esteem, relative deprivation, minority stress, and emotional dysregulation. These papers act as empirical evidence that negative self-feelings catalyze hostile behavior toward others.
Jiang Y, Tong L, Cao W, Wang H. Dark Triad and relational aggression: the mediating role of relative deprivation and hostile attribution bias.. 2024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1487970
Dark Triad traits predict relational aggression through relative deprivation and hostile attribution bias.
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Li Q, Shang S, Du J, Wu J, Xiao S. Perceived discrimination as a predictor of cyberbullying: the mediating role of self-esteem and moderating role of self-compassion.. 2024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1499759
Perceived discrimination leads to cyberbullying, mediated by diminished self-esteem.
Zhang X, Huang T, Wang Y, Hou Z, Fu J. From defense to reconstruction: The hostility-meaning dual-path model of how observing others' adversity influences distress disclosure.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0350109
Stress and reduced self-esteem trigger defensive hostility as a reaction to others' adversity.
Qian W, Chen C, Wei B. Bullying, minority stress and revenge impulse among autistic college students: group differences by sexual and gender minority status.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1727508
Bullying victimization increases minority stress which subsequently drives retaliatory and aggressive impulses.
Huang W, Kong L, Wu Y, Liu L, Huang S, Tu M, Wang J, Xiao Y. School bullying predicts malevolent creativity in middle school students through anger and hostile attribution bias.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-36211-z
School bullying fosters aggressive or malevolent outcomes via emotional pathways like anger and hostile attributions.
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