Empathic responses by cyberbystanders: the importance of proximity

Cyberaggression, and its’ specific sub-type, cyberbullying, have become a widely debated and studied issues, but we still lack knowledge about cyberbystanders, whose reactions (or lack thereof) can play a crucial role. One of the important factors determining behavioral outcomes is cyberbystanders’ empathic response to the incident. Certain features of cyberaggression incidents (e.g. distance and the invisibility of those involved) raise the question of what conditions tend to encourage (or inhibit) empathetic responses on the part of cyberbystanders. Therefore, we investigated the link between the empathic responses of 453 Czech adolescent cyberbystanders (age 12–18) and the context in which they become aware of ongoing cybervictimization. We found that being directly present and being informed by the victim increased emotional response, while witnessing it only online or being informed by others had no effect. We discuss the importance of including the dimensions of ‘proximity’ or ‘directness’ in both prevention and intervention efforts and future research on cyberbystanders’ reactions.

"...the dimension of ‘directness’ or ‘proximity’ (i.e. being directly present, being informed by the victim, having an existing relationship with the victim) influences the empathic response: the more direct the encounter is, the more intense the response" (Machackova et al., 2015, pp. 802)