Big Five traits and cyberbullying severity as predictors of cyberbystander behavior among adults in the U.S.

BACKGROUND

Whereas correlates of cyberbullying have been studied extensively, there has been comparatively less work examining predictors of the different ways in which bystanders to cyberbullying might respond. Adopting a person-situation interaction approach, this study investigated the extent to which the Big Five personality traits and severity of cyberbullying interactively predict the likelihood of different cyberbystander behaviors.

METHODS

Adults in the U.S. (N = 303) took part in an online survey in which they were presented with a series of nine simulated social media interactions in the form of screenshots that involved exchanges between two social media users. Each screenshot depicted one of three distinct levels of cyberbullying severity: none, low severity, and high severity. For each screenshot, participants were asked to report the likelihood that they would respond in a range of ways as a bystander, including remaining a passive observer, confronting a bully, reinforcing a bully, supporting a victim, and flagging or reporting a post. Participants then completed a measure of the Big Five personality traits.

RESULTS

Regardless of cyberbullying severity, participants were significantly more likely to indicate that they would remain a passive observer in response to the depicted social media interactions than any other cyberbystander behavior. Informative two-way interactions did, however, emerge between cyberbullying severity and cyberbystander behavior and between these variables and Big Five traits across a series of mixed effects models. A significant three-way interaction emerged for agreeableness, such that participants higher in agreeableness reported a greater likelihood of bystander action in response to high severity cyberbullying than those with moderate or lower levels of agreeableness.

CONCLUSIONS

This research offers support for the predictive value of both individual differences in the Big Five personality traits and cyberbullying severity for understanding diverse forms of cyberbystander behavior.