Bullying happens in almost every group. At your school, workplace and sports club. Given that the consequences of bullying can be quite severe, it is important to stop it as soon as possible. However, Beau's research shows a lot of time and effort is wasted on discussing whether someone is actually bullied or not. Beau argues it would help if we would start treating bullying more as a subjective rather than as an objective phenomenon.

Beau Oldenburg works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Sociology Department of the University of Groningen. During her research Beau noticed that there often is a lot of discussion on whether certain people are actually bullied or not. She found that many students who felt bullied were not seen as victims of bullying by their classmates and teachers. In other words: perceptions on bullying differ a lot. Beau argues we should focus more on the perceived than on the actual bullying. Beau was born in Breda and is a proud Brabander; however, she is also passionate about improving the world and that is the reason why she moved all the way to Groningen to develop her academic career researching bullying.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx