One more: attacking people who are familiar and comfortable to you rather than the people causing your actual
problems.
As a manager in tech, people who were on performance management rarely attacked me, they would find someone on the team to harass instead. Same thing with blaming a downturn in the economy on women painting their hair blue or mini skirts. Anything but blaming the powerful.
Pure conjecture on my part, but I wonder how much of this is risk-based status-mongering. Challenging the powerful is obviously risky. But knocking someone weaker down a few pegs can solidify your status in the hierarchy at a much lower risk. From that perspective, it's arguably rational behavior to maintain your status within a group when you feel vulnerable.
(Pardon my reach here, I watched Chimp Empire not too long ago...)
maybe, if you are in a closed system (like a small tribe). When most bullies Ive worked with went looking for other jobs they were treated like pariah, so it hit them when they left the closed system or someone from outside came in.
As a manager in tech, people who were on performance management rarely attacked me, they would find someone on the team to harass instead. Same thing with blaming a downturn in the economy on women painting their hair blue or mini skirts. Anything but blaming the powerful.