Severity of the Incident and its Perception by Bystanders as Predictors of Victim Blaming and Willingness to Help in Cyberbullying

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Poster Session: Communication and Technology Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Harassments, insults, and threats online can result in serious consequences for those who have been bullied. Although bystanders (i.e., those observing the incident) could prevent the victim from serious harm, they often remain silent. Based on approaches to explain bystander behavior offline as well as Just World Theory, we aim at investigating the perceptual mechanisms that inhib-it bystanders to help a victim of cyberbullying. Drawing on an online-experiment with 240 partici-pants, we show that an incident containing threats (compared to insults alone) is more likely as-sessed as severe, which in turn leads to a higher willingness to help the victim. Yet, an incident that is evaluated as less severe results in a higher tendency to blame the victim, which in turn may in-hibit bystanders’ social support. Results indicate that victims of seemingly less severe incidents are at risk of being victimized a second time.

Authors

• Christina Koehler, U of Mainz

• Mathias Weber, Department of Communication / Johannes Gutenberg U of Mainz