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Cyberbullying on Instagram: An investigation into the impact of bystander numbers, anonymity and empathy on bystander behavioural intentions

Zhi Zhang, University of Darmstadt; Stephanie Pieschl, University of Darmstadt

The important role of online bystanders has attracted increasing attention from cyberbullying researchers. In face-to-face contexts, individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim if other people are present and passive (Fischer et al., 2011). Similar bystander effect might be observed in cyberspace: For example, Machackova et al. (2015) found that cyber bystanders are more likely to help with few other cyber bystanders present. And You and Lee (2019) showed that both the anonymity and the number of bystanders influenced people's intention to engage in intervention. The anonymity of bystanders might be relevant because in cyberspace bystanders do not necessarily show their physical appearance or real names. However, previous studies focused on specific populations in specific cyber contexts. Therefore, further research is needed, especially replication studies. We conducted a conceptual replication of You and Lee's (2019) study by simulating an online cyberbullying scenario with 2 (anonymity: anonymous vs. real name) by 3 (number of bystanders: 8 vs. 170 vs. 1900) between-subject experimental conditions. Participants (n 130) took the role of bystanders and indicated their intention to engage in four intervention behaviours (i.e. ?inactive?, ?passive?, ?supportive? and ?confrontational?). In addition, we explored potential moderating effects of cognitive and affective empathy. However, we could not replicate any of the findings of You and Lee (2019): Neither anonymity nor the number of bystanders influenced our participants' intentions to engage in intervention behaviours consistently. Contrary to previous findings, we also did not find significant moderating effects of empathy. We will discuss potential methodological, theoretical, and practical implications of our findings.

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