By Lucy Betts, Loren Abell, Sarah Buglass and Oonagh Steer

November 15th marks the start of the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s Anti-Bullying week.  In 2020, 80% of schools participated in Anti-Bullying week reaching an estimated 7.5 million children This year the theme is one kind word. 

The Bullying and Aggressive Behaviour research group are again encouraging students and staff at Nottingham Trent University to support Anti-Bullying week by wearing odd socks on Monday 15th November.

This year we are also encouraging everyone to get firmly behind the theme of Anti-Bullying week and spread “one kind word”.  We will be creating a physical and online wall of kindness.  We are asking students and staff to post one kind word either physically or virtually.

Be Kind: created by Phoebe Buxton

By encouraging others to spread kindness, we are hoping that they will also take time away from engaging in potentially unkind or ambiguous banter. Banter is a common experience for many, with banter being part of many of our social interactions.  Characterised as humour between known individuals, friendly banter can be a way of connecting with our friends and colleagues.  In these interactions, there is a shared understanding that no intent to cause harm and friends understand the boundaries and where the line of acceptability is.

However, as evidenced by the recent press coverage of Azeem Rafiq’s experiences at Yorkshire Cricket Club, behaviour that clearly falls outside of the definition of friendly banter can still be labelled as banter.  The labelling of these behaviours may be a way of trying to downplay the hostility of the original behaviours.  Specifically, the term banter can be used to label behaviours that would otherwise be seen as harmful, bullying, or intended to cause harm. 

Research by members of the Bullying and Aggressive Behaviour Research Group has highlighted that adolescents and university students have a clear understanding of the acceptability of banter.  Both groups talked about the importance of the social context through which the behaviour happens, the nature of the relationships between the individuals engaging in the banter, and who witnessed the banter.  When the banter was witnessed beyond those in an individual’s friendship network, it had the potential to be perceived negatively.  Similarly, if the intent of the banter was ambiguous, such remarks and behaviours were more likely to be perceived as negative and potentially bullying.

We recognise that banter can act as an important part of social bonding.  However, our findings highlight the complexity of banter and some of the challenges identifying the line between banter and more negative behaviours.  Therefore, we would like to encourage everyone this Anti-Bullying week to think about when and why they use banter and to spread kindness.

Image credit Mei-Ling Mirow on Unsplash.com

You can read more from Lucy, Loren, Sarah, and Oonagh at The Conversation, with their article: Seven ways that banter can become bullying

And you can see more of the research findings at the heart of these articles here: –

  • Buglass, S. L., Abell, L., Betts, L. R., Hill, R., & Saunders, J. (2021). Banter versus bullying: A student perspective. International Journal for Bullying prevention, 3, 287-299.
  • Steer, O., Betts, L. R., Baguley, T., & Binder, J. F. (2020). “I feel like everyone does it”- Adolescents’ perceptions and awareness of the association between humour, banter, and cyberbullying. Computers in Human Behavior, 108, 106297.