The Role of Short- and Long-Term Cognitive Empathy Activation in Preventing Cyberbystander Reinforcing Cyberbullying Behavior

Abstract

The long- versus short-term effectiveness of empathy activation on reducing bystander behavior reinforcing cyberbullying was tested. The focus was on limiting the frequency of forwarding a message ridiculing a peer. Experimental research on adolescent students was conducted in conditions simulating online contact. The results confirmed the significance of cognitive empathy activated immediately prior to decision making on limiting involvement in reinforcing cyberbullying behavior. The long-term impact of empathy was markedly limited.

Bystanders’ responses to offline bullying and cyberbullying: The role of empathy and normative beliefs about aggression

“…The finding that neither affective nor cognitive empathy was related to reinforcement of bullies in (cyber)bullying stands in contrast to previous research (Barlińska et al ., ; ; Van Cleemput et al ., ). However, the findings may be due to different operationalization, like a different trait empathy scale (Van Cleemput et al ., ) or a state measure for empathy (Barlińska et al ., ; ). Further, the influence of normative beliefs seems to be so strong that empathy did not play a significant role in bystanders’ reinforcing responses: Normative influences might override the influence of empathy in the bystander situation.…”

“…Therefore, possibly even children higher on cognitive empathy might incorrectly assess the severity of the incident as being low, leading to low immediate affective empathy and low supportive responses in turn. The finding that neither affective nor cognitive empathy was related to reinforcement of bullies in (cyber)bullying stands in contrast to previous research (Barlińska et al ., ; ; Van Cleemput et al ., ). However, the findings may be due to different operationalization, like a different trait empathy scale (Van Cleemput et al ., ) or a state measure for empathy (Barlińska et al ., ; ).…”

“…Concerning bystanders in cyberbullying, empathy seems to be one possible protective factor against negative online behavior (such as cyberbullying or passive bystanding) and increases the probability of prosocial online behavior (such as actively supporting the victim) (Pfetsch, ). For example, experi‐mental data shows that actively taking the perspective of the cybervictim (cognitive empathy) and feeling the emotions of the harmed person (affective empathy) reduces reinforcement for the cyberbully (i.e., forwarding a degrading photo; Barlińska, Szuster & Winiewski, ; ). Data from real‐life experiences in children and adolescents show that affective empathy (or empathic concern) predicts positively the helping of the victim and negatively the joining in the cyberbullying, as well as doing nothing despite noticing the cyberbullying (Van Cleemput, Vandebosch & Pabian, ).…”

“…Moreover, prior research pointed out possible differences between the different types of aggression related to specific types of both normative beliefs (Wright & Li, ) and empathy (Caravita et al ., ; Yeo, Ang, Loh, Fu & Karre, ; Van Noorden et al ., ). However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the link between bystander responses with specific types of normative beliefs (i.e., beliefs about verbal aggression and cyberaggression), and just a handful of studies studied cognitive, as well as affective, empathy (Barlińska, Szuster & Winiewski, ; ; Pfetsch et al ., ). Therefore, controlling for gender and age, we aim to examine these links.…”

Considering mindfulness techniques in school-based anti-bullying programmes

“…For example, mindfulness has been linked to empathy and perspective taking (Jones, Bodie, & Hughes, 2016). Furthermore, empathy has been linked to positive bystander behavior (Barlińska, Szuster, & Winiewski, 2015) which in turn has been linked to reductions in bullying (Polanin, Espelage, & Pigoot, 2012).…”