Cyberbystanders: Most Don't Try To Stop Online Bullies
Sunday, March 1, 2015 - 10:10
in Psychology & Sociology
In a new study, 221 college students participated in an online chat room in which they watched a fellow student get "bullied" right before their eyes. Only 10 percent of the students who noticed the abuse directly intervened, either by confronting the bully online or helping the victim. The abuse wasn't real - the bully and the victim were part of the experiment - but the participants didn't know that. "The results didn't surprise me," said Kelly Dillon, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in communication at The Ohio State University. "Many other studies have shown bystanders are reluctant to get involved when they see bullying. The results disappointed me, as a human, but they didn't surprise me as a scientist." read more