The main aim of the study was to examine the influence of affective empathy and social norms on preventing behavior of cyberbystanders reinforcing cyberbullying. 219 students took part in an experiment conducted in junior high and high schools from three Polish school districts. The goal of the experiment was to check whether the students would forward or delete a humiliating picture. The results indicate a strong impact of previous experiences as a cyberperpetrator on cyberbystanders’ reinforcing behavior and a relevant effect of affective empathy activation, which decreased the frequency of cyberbullying enhancing behavior. No significant effect of gender or norm activation was found. Bystanders’ negative cyberbullying behavior was effectively reduced through norm priming only in the case of those individuals who were able to appropriately verbalize the contents of violated norms. It indicates that the regulatory role of social norms is subject to cognitive understanding of their contents.

中文翻译：

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网络旁观者、情感同理心和社会规范

该研究的主要目的是检查情感同理心和社会规范对防止网络旁观者加强网络欺凌行为的影响。219 名学生参加了在波兰三个学区的初中和高中进行的实验。实验的目的是检查学生是否会转发或删除羞辱性图片。结果表明，先前作为网络犯罪者的经历对网络旁观者的强化行为和情感移情激活的相关影响有很强的影响，这降低了网络欺凌强化行为的频率。没有发现性别或规范激活的显着影响。只有在那些能够恰当地表达违反规范内容的个人的情况下，旁观者的负面网络欺凌行为才能通过规范启动有效减少。这表明社会规范的调节作用取决于对其内容的认知理解。