Bystander barriers in sexual harassment - Associations with the Dark Triad and social anxiety

Abstract

Bystanders play a potentially important role in sexual harassment, but they often fail to intervene. Previous research has linked bystander failure to a host of situational and individual factors. In this brief study, we investigated the Dark Triad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and social anxiety (i.e., fear of negative social evaluation) in relation to five bystander barriers. In an online study, 294 participants (mostly from United Kingdom) completed questionnaires on the Dark Triad, Fear of Negative Social Evaluation, and five Bystander Barriers. In regression analyses (controlling for age and gender), psychopathy and fear of negative evaluation were significant positive predictors for failure to notice harassment. For failure to take intervention responsibility, gender (i.e., being male) and Machiavellianism were significant positive predictors. For skills and audience inhibition, Machiavellianism and fear of negative evaluation were significant positive, and psychopathy a significant negative predictor. Our results suggest that personality and social anxiety independently predict different difficulties in bystander intervention.