Individual differences in social control: Who ‘speaks up’ when witnessing uncivil, discriminatory, and immoral behaviours?

Abstract

This research examined the personality characteristics of individuals who 'speak up' and confront perpetrators of norm transgressions. We tested whether those who intervene tend to be 'bitter complainers' or 'well-adjusted leaders'. In four studies (total N = 1,003), we measured several individual differences that are directly implicated by at least one of the two concepts. We also presented participants with uncivil, discriminatory, and immoral behaviours and asked them how likely they would be to intervene if they were to witness each of these behaviours as a bystander. The results confirmed the well-adjusted leader hypothesis: Participants' self-reported tendency to confront perpetrators correlated positively with altruism, extraversion, social responsibility, acceptance by peers, independent self-construal, emotion regulation, persistence, self-directedness, age, occupation, and monthly salary, but not with aggressiveness or low self-esteem. Individuals who confront prejudice also speak up against other immoral and uncivil behaviours. We discuss the implications of these findings for the perpetuation and change of social norms.

Social norms are enforced by friends: The effect of relationship closeness on bystanders’ tendency to confront perpetrators of uncivil, immoral, and discriminatory behaviors

“…This generalizability replicates recent work by Moisuc, Brauer, Fonseca, Chaurand, and Greitemeyer (2018) who also found that individuals tend to react in similar ways to different types of deviant behaviors. This generalizability replicates recent work by Moisuc, Brauer, Fonseca, Chaurand, and Greitemeyer (2018) who also found that individuals tend to react in similar ways to different types of deviant behaviors.…”

“…The relationship closeness effect generalized across all three types of behaviors, i.e., minor norm transgressions ("uncivil behaviors"), major norm transgressions and criminal acts ("immoral behaviors"), and hostile behaviors toward ethnic minorities ("discriminatory behaviors"). This generalizability replicates recent work by Moisuc, Brauer, Fonseca, Chaurand, and Greitemeyer (2018) who also found that individuals tend to react in similar ways to different types of deviant behaviors. Finally, our exploratory analyses showed that the relationship closeness effect increases with age.…”

Moral Punishment in Everyday Life

“…Some opinion poll data show a tendency among older people to hold more punitive sentiments toward six common crimes (McCorkle, 1993). Across multiple norm-violation scenarios and a large sample covering the full age range, Moisuc et al (in press; Sample 3) found a reliable positive correlation between age and the self-reported tendency to confront perpetrators. Another scenario-based study found that older computer users were less permissive toward illegitimate use of a computer than younger ones (Gattiker & Kelley, 1999).…”

Rethinking School-Based Bullying Prevention Through the Lens of Social and Emotional Learning: a Bioecological Perspective

“…Successful bystander intervention requires taking risks and is associated with a sense of high self-efficacy, high empathy for victims, moral engagement, and high social status (Thornberg and Jungert 2013). Even among adults, the ability to intervene is correlated with altruism, extraversion, peer acceptance, emotion regulation, and autonomous sense of self (Moisuc et al 2018).…”