Standing up or standing by

Bystander intervention in cyberbullying on social media

Bibliographic Data

ID12656111
AuthorsSai Wang (0000-0001-8562-9470, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume23
Issue6
Pages1379-1397
Publication date2020-01-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1461444820902541
OpenAlexW3003872195
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited50

Cyberbullying often happens in the presence of bystanders whose behaviors play a key role in changing dynamics of the situation. To examine the factors influencing cyberbystander likelihood of intervening in cyberbullying on social media, a 2 (degree of cyberbullying severity: high vs low) × 2 (level of interpersonal similarity: high vs low) between-subjects experiment was conducted ( N = 132). Results indicated that cyberbystanders’ empathic responses depended on the severity of cyberbullying. The more empathy bystanders felt, the more likely they were to publicly and privately intervene. Moreover, the indirect effect of cyberbullying severity on willingness to intervene through empathy was more pronounced when the interpersonal similarity between victim and cyberbystander was low, rather than it was high

Bystander effect · Empathic concern · Empathy · Helping behavior · Interpersonal communication · Interpersonal interaction · Interpersonal relationship · Intervention (counseling · Perspective-taking · Similarity (geometry · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Psychology · Social Psychology · Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment

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