Elsevier

Telematics and Informatics

Volume 62, September 2021, 101627
Telematics and Informatics

Cyberbullying: Effect of emergency perception on the helping tendencies of bystanders

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101627Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We test the effect of emergency perception on cyber-bystanders’ helping tendencies and the mechanisms involved.

  • When cyber-bystanders perceived the situation of the victim to be more critical, they exhibited higher helping tendencies.

  • When the victim revealed information of being in urgent situations, cyber-bystanders exhibited higher helping tendencies.

  • Cyber-bystanders’ emergency perception of the victim can increase helping tendencies directly.

  • It can also increase helping tendencies indirectly, through increasing state empathy and feelings of responsibility to help.

Abstract

The effect of the emergency perception of bystanders of cyberbullying victims on helping behaviors is often neglected in research on cyberbullying. In this study, we explored the influence of this cognitive factor on cyber-bystanders’ helping tendencies as well as elucidated possible underlying processes. The results of two studies were reported. In Study 1, 150 undergraduates read a true case of a girl experiencing cyberbullying. The results indicated that when the participants perceived the victim’s situation to be more critical (i.e., higher emergency perception), their helping tendencies were stronger, partly through increased state empathy followed by feelings of responsibility to help. In Study 2, we randomly assigned 300 undergraduates to two groups. The low emergency group read the same cyberbullying case as Study 1, whereas the cyberbullying case read by the high emergency group contained additional emergency information of the victim. The results indicated that the high emergency group expressed stronger helping tendencies than did the low emergency group. This effect was caused by a stronger perception that the victim was in an emergency situation, which not only strengthened the participants’ helping tendencies directly but also indirectly through increasing their state empathy and feelings of responsibility to help.

Introduction

Cyberbullying refers to an individual or group intentionally using electronic devices or the Internet to transmit messages to repeatedly attack someone who cannot easily defend themselves (Balakrishnan and Fernandez, 2018, Lo Cricchio et al., 2021, Smith et al., 2008). Arising due to the popularity of computers and the Internet, cyberbullying is a relatively new social problem requiring serious attention. Increasing numbers of victims face stress due to cyberbullying, and some even lose their lives (Prot et al., 2017). Society must make greater effort to reduce the prevalence of cyberbullying and its consequences (Cohen-Almagor, 2018).

Scholars have indicated that the tendencies of bystanders to help victims is a key factor in reducing cyberbullying (Bastiaensens et al., 2014, Kazerooni et al., 2018, Luo and Bussey, 2019, Machackova et al., 2015, Obermaier et al., 2016). Consequently, identifying factors that can increase the helping tendencies of bystanders is essential. In the field of cyberbullying, discussions related to the helping tendencies or behaviors of bystanders are emerging. However, various studies outside the field have identified factors that may influence helping behaviors. For example, researchers have explored the influence of bystanders’ perception of an emergency in specific crises on their helping behaviors. The bystander intervention model proposed by Latané and Darley (1970) states that whether bystanders interpret an event as an emergency (“emergency perception”) is a central factor influencing helping behaviors. When bystanders perceive an event as an emergency, they have stronger helping tendencies (Shotland and Huston, 1979, Shotland and Stebbins, 1983). If a situation is vague or ambiguous, bystanders may be uncertain as to whether it is an emergency and therefore have weaker helping tendencies (Clark and Word, 1974, Solomon et al., 1978). Thus, the emergency perception of bystanders is a key cognitive factor influencing their helping behaviors.

Emergency perception involves various related concepts. For example, it involves the perceived severity of events (Obermaier et al., 2016). It also involves the level of urgency perceived by bystanders regarding the victim being harmed and requiring intervention (i.e., need and urgency; see Shotland and Stebbins, 1983). Although these concepts in emergency perception are related, they are different (Obermaier et al., 2016), and the differences are accentuated in cyberbullying. For example, specific cyberbullying events are likely to be considered objectively severe (e.g., the perpetrator put a privacy-invading photo of the victim on Facebook with a deriding comment, see Bastiaensens et al., 2014). However, bystanders often fail to clearly evaluate the level of urgency of victims in need of help because cyberbullying situations are often unclear to them (Knauf et al., 2018, Lambe et al., 2019, Lo Cricchio et al., 2021, Machackova et al., 2015, Machackova and Pfetsch, 2016). Consequently, bystanders may exhibit low emergency perception. According to Shotland and Huston (1979) as well as Shotland and Stebbins (1983), the main emergency concept that influences whether bystanders exhibit helping behaviors is their perception of a victim’s need and urgency. This indicates that during cyberbullying events, bystanders’ perception of the victim’s state of emergency may have a stronger influence than the perceived severity of the event.

Currently, concepts related to the bystander emergency perception of cyberbullying victims and its influence on helping tendencies and behaviors are often neglected by the field (see Balakrishnan and Fernandez, 2018, p. 25; Kowalski et al., 2014, p. 37). Although some studies have explored the effect of bystanders’ perceived severity of cyberbullying on their helping tendencies (see Bastiaensens et al., 2014, Kazerooni et al., 2018, Koehler and Weber, 2018, Obermaier et al., 2016), few have focused on the more crucial aspect—bystanders’ perception of whether cyberbullying victims are in an emergency situation—or discussed the effect of this perception on and the influence mechanisms regarding helping tendencies. Therefore, in this study, we explored these aspects to improve the understanding of the effect and underlying mechanisms. This study may also help in identifying concrete strategies for strengthening bystanders’ helping tendencies and behaviors, thereby reducing cyberbullying and its consequences.

How does bystanders’ perception of cyberbullying targets being in an emergency influence their helping tendencies? According to research on bystander intervention, when bystanders perceive situations as more desperate, their helping tendencies are stronger (Clark and Word, 1974, Fischer et al., 2006, Fischer et al., 2011, Latané and Darley, 1970, Solomon et al., 1978). Studies on bullying and cyberbullying have also determined that bystanders’ emergency perception is positively associated with their helping tendencies (Lambe et al., 2019, Obermaier et al., 2016). This indicates that when bystanders have a higher level of emergency perception of cyberbullying victims, their helping tendencies may also be stronger.

Various mechanisms may be in play here. First, bystanders’ feelings of responsibility to help may be a key mediator. Researchers have demonstrated that when bystanders feel more responsibility to help in crisis situations, they are more likely to help (González and Lay, 2017, Lambe et al., 2019, Latané and Darley, 1970). Studies on cyberbullying have also determined that the responsibility to help perceived by bystanders is positively associated with their intention to help (DeSmet et al., 2016, Kazerooni et al., 2018, Obermaier et al., 2016). In addition, Obermaier et al. (2016) revealed that when cyberbullying events are perceived to be more serious by bystanders, bystanders would exhibit higher emergency perception, which boosts feelings of responsibility to help and helping tendencies in turn. This suggests that bystanders’ emergency perception increases their helping tendencies possibly because it generates in bystanders stronger feelings of responsibility to help.

Second, the empathy bystanders feel toward targets of cyberbullying may be another key mediator. Empathy is the ability to understand and feel the emotions of another person (Batson, 2009). Several studies have described how the empathy of bystanders toward victims in crisis situations is the key factor influencing their helping tendencies (González and Lay, 2017, Prot et al., 2017, Toi and Batson, 1982). Studies on bullying have generally found that bystander empathy is positively associated with the bystanders’ helping tendencies (Dodaj et al., 2012, Haddock and Jimerson, 2017, Lambe et al., 2019, Nickerson et al., 2015, van Noorden et al., 2015, Zych et al., 2019). This indicates that when bystanders feel more empathy toward targets of cyberbullying, their helping tendencies are stronger (Barlińska et al., 2013, Barlińska et al., 2018, Freis and Gurung, 2013, Lambe et al., 2019, Machackova et al., 2015, Machackova and Pfetsch, 2016, Obermaier et al., 2016, Van Cleemput et al., 2014, Zych et al., 2019). Moreover, Fischer et al. (2006) indicated that when bystanders perceive higher danger in crisis situations, higher empathic arousal is generated and thus helping behaviors increase. Thus, a critical level of bystander perception of cyberbullying may indeed influence the state empathy generated for the victim, thereby influencing the bystanders’ helping tendencies (Machackova and Pfetsch, 2016).

In addition, positive correlations have been identified between empathy and feelings of responsibility to help in bystanders (González and Lay, 2017, Jenkins et al., 2017, Knauf et al., 2018). When bystanders feel more empathy for a victim of bullying, their feelings of responsibility to help tend to be stronger (Jenkins and Nickerson, 2019). Moreover, bystanders’ feelings of responsibility to help have positive effects on their helping tendencies (DeSmet et al., 2016, Kazerooni et al., 2018, Obermaier et al., 2016). Consequently, emergency perception may increase bystander empathy and feelings of responsibility to help with a subsequent increase in helping tendencies (Knauf et al., 2018). Although our inferences regarding the aforementioned effects of emergency perception on bystander helping tendencies were partly based on studies related to bullying or other crisis events (i.e., not directly related to cyberbullying events), we expected the aforementioned effects to also occur in cyberbullying situations. This was because cyberbullying is a form of bullying or crisis event. The effect of the emergency perception of a victim on bystander helping tendencies and the underlying mechanisms in cyberbullying events should not differ much from those in bullying or other crises.

Section snippets

Present study

The emergency perception of bystanders is a key cognitive factor influencing helping behaviors. However, the influence of this concept on helping tendencies and behaviors is often neglected by the field of cyberbullying. In this study, we aimed to explore the influence of bystanders’ emergency perception of cyberbullying victims on helping tendencies as well as elucidate possible underlying processes. On the basis of the literature review, a sequential mediation model was proposed for how the

Participants

This study was conducted at three universities in Western Taiwan. We recruited participants by contacting teachers of 7 classes, who invited their students to voluntarily participate in this study (N = 150). Overall, 74% of the recruited participants were female (111 female, 39 male). The participants were all Taiwanese students of Asian descent and ranged in age from 18 to 51 years (M = 21.29, SD = 4). They received a convenience store voucher valued at NT$100 (approximately US$3) for

Participants

This study was conducted at three universities in Western Taiwan. We recruited participants by contacting teachers of 11 classes. The participants participated in this study voluntarily after invited by their teachers (N = 300). The participants were all Taiwanese students of Asian descent and were randomly assigned to a high emergency or a low emergency condition. After excluding 13 participants failing to complete all the measures, the valid sample consisted of 287 students. Overall, 67% of

Discussion

The main goal of this research was to examine the effect of emergency perception on bystanders’ helping tendencies and the mechanisms involved. A survey and an experiment were conducted. The results were extremely consistent: when bystanders to cyberbullying more strongly perceived the victim to be in an emergency situation, they exhibited stronger helping tendencies. Bystanders’ emergency perception of the victim of cyberbullying not only strengthened their helping tendencies directly but also

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C. [grant number MOST 109-2410-H-020-MY2].

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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