Dr Tracy Vaillancourt

Canadian developmental psychologist at the University of Ottawa whose research on indirect aggression — the covert social manipulation, exclusion, and reputation damage used primarily by girls — has been influential in understanding the specifically female forms of social aggression.

Documents and explains indirect aggression as a specifically female-dominant aggression strategy — the social exclusion, rumor-spreading, and reputational attacks that are the female equivalent of physical aggression — providing the research basis for understanding female bullying and social competition.