Strouse disagrees. “I don’t think the name-caller will get bored if the victim agrees with his ‘Idiot, stupid, or loser’ statements. If anything, the person being called those names is going to run into public humiliation. It would be ideal if an adolescent can fire back with a funny comment to the ‘insulter,’ but that notion is really for the pop-psychology culture,” he says. “Can a child really reply with a witty comeback that quickly…especially an elementary or middle-school child? I don’t think so; human relationships are much more complex.”
