To Ignore, to Join in, or to Intervene? Contextual and Individual Factors Influencing Cyber Bystanders’ Response to Cyberbullying Incidents

Background/Objectives: Cyber bystanders can choose from several different strategies during cyberbullying incidents and have a significant effect on the situation. Hence, cyber bystanders are specifically targeted by prevention programmes and research investigating variables influencing cyber bystander responses is crucial for such programmes. The aim of our study was (1) to explore contextual factors’ effect on cyberbullying incidents’ perceived severity and (2) the most frequent cyber bystander responses. We also aimed (3) to learn how the context of cyberbullying incidents affects cyber bystander responses and the joint effect of individual and contextual variables on cyber bystander responses. Methods: In total, 314 Hungarian high school students participated in our online survey (mean age = 16.15, SD = 3.28). The respondents filled in self-administered questionnaires that measured cyber bystander responses, severity of different cyberbullying incidents, empathy, moral disengagement, social desirability, and cyberbullying engagement. Results: First, our results showed that the respondents perceived public and visual cyberbullying, and when the victim was upset by it the most severe incidents. Second, in almost every condition, the two most likely cyber bystander responses were ignorance and emotional support for the victim. Third, the individual and contextual variables had a joint effect influencing cyber bystander responses except for emotional support to the victim that was only influenced by individual variables, i.e., empathy, moral disengagement, and social desirability. Conclusions: All in all, our results showed that all cyberbullying contexts were associated with cyber bystander responses and the prominent association between moral disengagement, social desirability, empathy, and prosocial cyber bystander responses. Moreover, these results could guide cyberbullying prevention to focus on cyber bystanders’ empathy training, decreasing their moral disengagement, and educating them about the effects of online contextual variables.