Mobbed!

Book excerpt: Sometimes they really are out to get you. If you have been the target of group bullying in your workplace, school, church or community, you are not alone. Mobbing is a patterned and predictable form of group aggression that happens when someone in a position of leadership sets out to eliminate someone and persuades the rest of the group to go along. In Mobbed! What to Do When They Really Are Out to Get You, anthropologist Janice Harper explains how and why mobbing happens and suggests steps you can take to protect yourself once it's underway. Drawing on research in animal behavior, group psychology, gossip and false memory, Dr. Harper demonstrates how current approaches to eradicating "bullies" in the workplace are more likely to backfire than help the mobbing target. In this book, she presents an entirely new way to understand collective human aggression and heal from its devastating impacts.