An exploratory study of culture and cyber harassment

Abstract

It has long been recognised that there are national and cultural differences in propensities to write negative information about others and institutions using the internet. With the Arab Spring, some changes are unfolding with regard to long-held traditions about expressions of dissent. While Western cultures have enjoyed fairly unrestricted online dissent, this phenomenon is quite new in some Asian, Arab and Mid-East countries. An important question that follows is how will an emerging tolerance for online expression reflect in online self-governance? Guided by the GLOBE socio-cultural model, we studied two groups of Eastern and Mid-Eastern college students by having an ‘actor’ invite them to post on a fictitious blog comments about a fictitious organisation that was ‘purportedly’ lobbying to gain prohibitions against ‘foreign students’ from attending universities in the USA, UK, and Northern Europe. We compared these Eastern and Mid-Eastern groups to Western and European groups of students using the reverse scenario. We analysed the data and blog postings and found a significant difference between groups and their propensities to make negative postings on the fictitious blog as well as the intensity of those blog postings. As a result, we propose several suggestions for researchers and professionals to facilitate decision-action.