Bullying, Cooperation, and Social Manipulation: Relations with Social Power in Adolescence

Abstract

Bullying is frequently used alongside prosocial strategies to achieve social dominance while minimizing social costs. However, the nature of this combination remains unclear, as prosocial strategies have been variously conceptualized as altruistic, mutually beneficial, or competitive and self-serving. The present study investigates whether bullying is associated with cooperative prosocial strategies—marked by collaboration, reciprocity, and mutual benefit—or with socially manipulative strategies characterized by ingratiation, insincerity, and manipulation for self-serving ends. A sample of 477 secondary school students (54.5% boys, 45.5% girls; Mage = 15.49) completed peer nomination measures assessing bullying, cooperative prosocial strategies and social manipulation, and three facets of social power: social dominance (dominance and popularity), peer affection (likeability and number of friendships), and dating popularity. Results indicated that bullying was significantly associated with socially manipulative strategies but not with cooperative strategies. Cooperative strategies were most strongly linked to cooperative relationships with an expectation of mutual benefit (peer affection, dating popularity), whereas social manipulation had the strongest association with social dominance, a more competitive form of social power. Boys’ direct bullying, and indirect bullying combined with high levels of social manipulation, were positively related to social dominance. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing cooperative prosocial strategies from social manipulation and suggest that socially acceptable cooperative behaviors may serve as viable alternatives to bullying within anti-bullying interventions.