Participant Role Behavior in Cyberbullying: an Examination of Moral Disengagement Among College Students

Abstract

The current study examined the role of moral disengagement in cyberbullying participant role behavior among college-aged individuals. Participants included 434 students who completed surveys measuring their participation in cyberbullying, including online bystander role behaviors, as well as their moral disengagement. Regression analysis results indicated that moral disengagement was positively associated with cyberbullying perpetration, cyberbullying victimization, passive bystanding online behavior, and reinforcing online behavior. The current study furthers knowledge on the associations between online bullying-related behavior and moral disengagement and could lead to necessary cyberbullying prevention and intervention support for young adults.

To defend or not to defend a cyber victim: The role of individual and situational characteristics in motivating active cyber defending among university students

“…However, with the addition of the situational characteristics, perceived popularity and the psychosocial cost of defending, higher levels of moral disengagement were found to be significantly related to passive outsider behaviour online, contradicting our hypothesis. This finding is consistent with the literature suggesting that high levels of moral disengagement is associated with passive defending online (Jeong et al, 2022;Nagar et al, 2022), whereas other studies have indicated that low levels of moral disengagement were related to passive bystanding online (Lo Cricchio et al, 2020;Sarmiento et al, 2019). At the same time, research has also revealed that moral disengagement was not associated with passive bystanding online (Lo Cricchio et al, 2020;Sarmiento et al, 2019), suggesting that the connection between moral disengagement and passive outsiders online is uncertain.…”

Moral disengagement and empathy in cyberbullying: how they are related in reflection activities about a serious game

“…Moreover, the gamified tasks allowed participants, to experience the consequences of being prosocial, since they receive a message from the victim, thanking them for their support. Thus, by receiving this type of social reward, the cognitive costs of feeling empathy, might decrease [ 49 ], which could lead to higher feelings of empathy, and consequently, lower levels of MD. Finally, we examined how with these gamified tasks, participants may be able get a deeper understanding of how much their support can be important in real life situations, how they can act prosocially, and how they can have a positive impact by setting the example in their peer group.…”

“…Empathy is a complex psychological phenomenon of key importance in social interaction [ 48 ], which plays an important role in moral development [ 49 ], including in emotions, attitudes and behavior [ 50 ]. Empathy can be viewed as both as emotional and a cognitive response to other people’s situations and refers to the ability to understand and feel the emotions of others [ 51 ].…”

“…In cyberbullying the explicit call for help may not exist, however, empathy and MD are important in explaining cyberbystanders’ behavior [ 35 , 68 ]. It is known that cognitive costs, such as effort and inefficacy can deter empathy [ 49 ]. Thus, considering the above, we argue that combining both empathy and MD training in cyberbullying interventions, may facilitate feeling empathy, as participants may become conscious of the automatic use of MD mechanisms, and understand that it is important to be more empathic in these situations and that their intervention matters - which may, in turn, reduce the feelings of effort and inefficacy.…”

Confronting the Bullies, Comforting the Victim, or Reporting to University Staff? Prosocial Intentions Towards Social Exclusion in University Students

“…Cyberbullying, which was briefly mentioned in the introduction, is another field of research which could be explored further in the context of HE. Some studies have already investigated different issues with regards to cyberbullying in HE (Byers & Cerulli, 2021;Doane et al, 2020;Gahagan et al, 2016;Hayashi & Tahmasbi, 2020Huang et al, 2023;Jeong et al, 2022). While there seems to be a trend towards research on cyberbullying at all educational levels, we decided to focus on traditional in-person relational bullying in this study as the research foundation on traditional bullying in HE and the role of bystanders in it is still considered scarce and ought not to be overlooked.…”