Understanding bystanders’ willingness to Intervene in traditional and cyberbullying scenarios.

Walker, Justine A.; Jeske, Debora

Abstract

Bullying incidents in traditional and online settings are a cause for concern to many parties. The goal of the current study was to explore the extent to which a bystander would intervene in a bullying incident and the degree to which this behavior is influenced by group size (the number of other witnesses), the setting (traditional or cyberbullying), and gender of the victim. Using an online survey method, participants were presented with eight bullying scenarios, each of which involved verbal bullying of a victim. Participants (N = 82) were asked to report how likely they would be to intervene in each of these scenarios. Results showed that female victims were more likely to be helped than male victims. Furthermore, female participants were more willing to intervene than the male participants in the cyberbullying scenarios. Altruism was a positive predictor of participants’ willingness to intervene. The present findings suggest that certain gender differences in helping behavior may depend on the context in which bullying is observed (traditional or cyberbullying).

Citation

Walker, J. A., & Jeske, D. (2016). Understanding bystanders’ willingness to Intervene in traditional and cyberbullying scenarios. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 6(2), 22-38. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCBPL.2016040102

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 21, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Deposit Date: Feb 23, 2016
• Print ISSN: 2155-7136
• Electronic ISSN: 2155-7144
• Publisher: IGI Global
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 22-38
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCBPL.2016040102
• Keywords: Bullying; Cyberbullying; Bystander Effect; Intervention; Gender Differences; Altruism
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/9570