Cyberbullying as an Act of Revenge?

Abstract

Despite significant overlaps between victim status in traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying, and qualitative results about self-reported reasons for cyberbullying, the role of revenge and retaliation as a motive to engage in acts of cyberbullying has not yet been examined systematically. As a first step, this study investigates whether and to what extent traditional victims, when they become cyberbullies, actually choose their former (traditional) perpetrators as targets of their own cyberbullying behavior. Furthermore, the impact of individual differences in relevant traits, such as vengefulness and justice sensitivity, on the choice of cybervictims is examined. Data from 473 students were collected via an online survey. Of these, 149 were identified as traditional victims/cyberbullies. Results show that traditionally bullied students indeed tend to choose their former perpetrators as cybervictims, and that individual differences play a role in the choice of their victims. Implications for further research, as well as for interventions and prevention programmes, are discussed.

Empathy in Traditional and Cyber Bullying/Victimization Involvement From Early to Middle Adolescence: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Most researchers agree that it is distinguished in two dimensions, cognitive empathy (i.e. the ability to recognize and understand others' feelings), and affective empathy which involves arousal to others' emotional state (König, Gollwitzer, & Steffgen, 2010). Cognitive empathy is related to Theory of Mind and perspective taking and is a prerequisite for experiencing affective empathy (Blair, 2005).…”

Cyberbullying from the perspective of choice theory

“…Another limitation of choice theory and reality therapy on cyber-bullying behaviors is about not giving importance to the effects of past and focusing on present in relation to the source of behaviors (Corey, 2009). Studies show that those with cyber-bullying behaviors were exposed to cyber or traditional bullying in their past (König et al, 2010). In addition, another finding of studies is that cyber-bullying and parental attitudes during childhood are related (Dilmaç and Aydogan, 2010).…”

“…It has been found that people displaying cyberbullying behaviors do not feel safe (Sourander et al, 2010); they feel alone (Schoffstall and Cohen, 2011), have feelings of revenge (König et al, 2010;Raskauskas and Stoltz, 2007) and are hostile (Arıcak, 2009) feelings. Besides, these people stated that a reason behind their Tanrikulu 663 cyberbullying behaviors is to get rid of boredom (Yaman and Peker, 2012).…”

I Can’t See You, You Can’t See Me: Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Study Examining this concept through the Lens of the Social Bond Theory

“…Persons who describe themselves as being cyberbullies get the support of their peers and often times they do nothing to stop their friends from engaging in such deviant behaviour even though they see the effects (Spears et al, 2009). Revenge or getting back at peers and anger are some of the main reasons persons engage in cyberbullying (Konig et al 2010). Cyberbullying is quite common in instances where intimate and peer relationships undergo stress such as a sudden breakup, envy and intolerance of others because of minor indifferences (Hoff and Mitchell, 2009).…”