Factors modifying the responses of cyberbystanders. A Polish-Lithuanian research project

With the development of modern technology, especially the Internet, new ways of manifesting peer aggression have emerged. Many aggressive behaviors have been transferred to the Internet (Kowalski et al., 2014). Cyberbullying is understood as aggressive behavior aimed at deliberately harming peers using electronic devices (Tokunaga, 2010). The research so far has focused on the victim of cyberbullying and the aggressor (e.g. Kowalski et al., 2014), but there are still few studies addressing the issue of the behavior of cyberbystanders to peer violence on the web (Barlinska et al., 2013, 2015; Bastiaensens et al., 2014; Machackova et al., 2015). Cyberbystanders are people who witness cyberbullying but are not involved directly as a bully or target (Weber et al., 2013). In the literature on bullying various roles adopted by bystanders are distinguished: passive, escalating aggressive behaviors by supporting the aggressor, or actively supporting the victim (De Smet et al., 2016).

The main aim of the project is to analyze the role of present-fatalistic time perspective as a dimension of control and to investigate emotional reactions and causal attributions as factors that can modify the response of bystanders to the act of cyberbullying. Moreover, we want to examine the importance of culture in the behavior of cyberbullying bystanders. In both countries, differences in two age groups will be tested - adolescents and young adults, which will allow us to grasp not only cultural but also developmental differences. The main hypothesis is as follows: Emotions and causal attributions will be mediators between cyberbullying and behavior, and fatalistic time perspective induction will be a moderator of the relationship between emotions and behavior. The project consists of three stages: meta-analysis, experiments, and a daily diary study conducted in Poland and Lithuania. The theoretical basis for the research project is the Bystander Intervention Model. The postulated relationships will be tested in two countries, and the cultural conditions of the examined phenomenon will be analyzed.

The proposed project is innovative because it addresses the rarely explored issue of the behavior of bystanders to cyberaggression and because it includes the investigation of the cognitive and emotional processes that may influence cyberbystanders’ choice of reactions. Another novelty of the proposed research is the inclusion of fatalistic time perspective as a dimension related to control over life and over the effects of one’s actions. An additonal advantage of the project is the planned research scheme, starting from a meta-analysis, which is meant to sum up the current state of knowledge, moving on to experiments and a diary study. What also contributes to the novelty is taking into account the multidimensional nature of bystander reactions (passiveness, attack, support). The proposed research may therefore fill an important gap in the current understanding of the complexity of behaviors undertaken by cyberbystanders. It may advance knowledge on cyberaggression and help increase prosocial cyberbystander behaviors.