You Are What You Read: The Belief Systems of Cyber-Bystanders on Social Networking Sites.

Angel N M Leung,Joann M Farver,Natalie Wong

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00365

Angel N M Leung, Joann M Farver + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00365

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Abstract

The present study tested how exposure to two types of responses to a hypothetical simulated Facebook setting influenced cyber-bystanders’ perceived control and normative beliefs using a 4 cyberbully-victim group (pure cyberbullies, non-involved, pure cyberbullied victims, and cyberbullied-victims) × 2 condition (offend vs. defend) experimental design. 203 Hong Kong Chinese secondary school and university students (132 females, 71 males; 12 to 28; M = 16.70; SD = 3.03 years old) were randomly assigned into one of two conditions. Results showed that participants’ involvement in cyberbullying significantly related to their control beliefs about bully and victim assisting behaviors, while exposure to the two different conditions (offend vs. defend comments) was related to both their control and normative beliefs. In general, the defend condition promoted higher control beliefs to help the victims and promoted higher normative beliefs to help the victims. Regardless of their past involvement in cyberbullying and exposure to offend vs. defend conditions, both cyber-bullies and cyber-victims were more inclined to demonstrate normative beliefs to help victims than to assist bullies. These results have implications for examining environmental influences in predicting bystander behaviors in cyberbullying contexts, and for creating a positive environment to motivate adolescents to become “upstanders” in educational programs to combat cyberbullying.

Highlights

The increase in cyberbullying on social network sites (SNS) has become a significant risk for the mental and physical health of adolescents in the United States and in many countries around the world (Patchin and Hinduja, 2012)
Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991), we developed and carried out an experiment to investigate whether exposure to different types of other bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying would alter individuals’ belief systems about how they would intervene in a cyberbullying situation
The present study investigated how bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying might differ based on how others react to bullying scenarios in a simulated experiment with a 4 cyberbully-victim groups × 2 experimental conditions

Summary

Introduction

The increase in cyberbullying on social network sites (SNS) has become a significant risk for the mental and physical health of adolescents in the United States and in many countries around the world (Patchin and Hinduja, 2012). In a large-scale study of adolescents’ online behavior, Lenhart et al (2011) found that while 88% had witnessed cyberbullying, most reported that they had ignored the bullying (90%), 67% had seen others join in, 21% had joined in themselves, and about 25% had defended the victim. Bystanders can only estimate how many others are witnessing the cyberbullying but they may not see how others react These conditions can lead to a diffusion of responsibility, a characteristic of the bystander effect, which can result in the inhibition of supportive behavior (Latané and Darley, 1970; Thornberg, 2007). Cyber-bystanders’ responses can contribute to the snowballing of cyberbullying by supporting cyberbullies’ goals to be dominant, admired, and powerful among their peers (e.g., Runions et al, 2013); and goals that motivate adolescents to perpetrate aggression (Salmivalli, 2010)

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