Bystanders’ responses to offline bullying and cyberbullying: The role of empathy and normative beliefs about aggression

Cyberbullying often takes place with the virtual presence or knowledge of bystanders. While we have some evidence about the determinants of bystanders’ responses to offline bullying, we lack empirical studies concerning the variables that influence bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying. The current study examines bystanders’ responses to offline bullying and cyberbullying incidents. Two types of responses were captured: support toward the victims and the reinforcement of bullies’ actions. Using data from 321 German adolescents (ages 12–18; M = 14.99; 44% girls), the association between bystanders’ responses and normative beliefs about verbal aggression and cyberaggression, and affective and cognitive empathy, were tested in a path model. Both types of normative beliefs positively predicted the reinforcement of bullies, and normative belief about verbal aggression also predicted support for the victims of offline bullying. Both types of empathy predicted support in offline bullying, but only affective empathy predicted support in cyberbullying. There was no link between affective or cognitive empathy to the reinforcement of bullies. Moreover, bystanders’ tendencies to respond supportively to the victim or to reinforce the bully were rather consistent in both cyber‐ and offline bullying, but there was no link between support and reinforcement. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for prevention and intervention efforts.     

The impact of rewards on empathic accuracy and emotional mimicry

The notion that motivation influences empathic accuracy has been inferred from aspects of the task, the situation or the relationship between interaction partners or between groups. The present research assessed whether monetary reward influences cognitive and affective empathy. In Study 1, cognitive empathy was assessed for 42 participants who decoded briefly (33 ms) presented expressions of sadness and anger. For half the participants, correctly decoded expressions on male faces were rewarded, for the other half correctly decoded expressions on female faces were rewarded. The results showed that rewards increase empathic accuracy for both emotions equally. In Study 2, facial EMG was measured as well to assess emotional mimicry as an index of affective empathy. Study 2 replicated the findings from Study 1 and found a moderation of affective empathy as indexed through facial mimicry for sadness. Thus, simple monetary rewards affect both cognitive and affective empathy.     

It takes two: the interpersonal nature of empathic accuracy

Although current theories suggest that affective empathy (perceivers' experience of social targets' emotions) should contribute to empathic accuracy (perceivers' ability to accurately assess targets' emotions), extant research has failed to consistently demonstrate a correspondence between them. We reasoned that prior null findings may be attributable to a failure to account for the fundamentally interpersonal nature of empathy, and tested the prediction that empathic accuracy may depend on both targets' tendency to express emotion and perceivers' tendency to empathically share that emotion. Using a continuous affect-rating paradigm, we found that perceivers' trait affective empathy was unrelated to empathic accuracy unless targets' trait expressivity was taken into account: Perceivers' trait affective empathy predicted accuracy only for expressive targets. These data suggest that perceivers' self-reported affective empathy can indeed predict their empathic accuracy, but only when targets' expressivity allows their thoughts and feelings to be read.     

Differences in Friendship Networks and Experiences of Cyberbullying Among Korean and Australian Adolescents

ABSTRACT

Cyberbullying is one of the negative consequences of online social interaction. The digital environment enables adolescents to engage in online social interaction beyond the traditional physical boundaries of families, neighborhoods, and schools. The authors examined connections to friendship networks in both online and offline settings are related to their experiences as victims, perpetrators, and bystanders of cyberbullying. A comparative face-to-face survey of adolescents (12–15-year-olds) was conducted in Korea (n = 520) and Australia (n = 401). The results reveal that online networks are partially related to cyberbullying in both countries, showing the size of social network sites was significantly correlated with experience cyberbullying among adolescents in both countries. However there were cultural differences in the impact of friendship networks on cyberbullying. The size of the online and offline networks has a stronger impact on the cyberbullying experiences in Korea than it does in Australia. In particular, the number of friends in cliques was positively related to both bullying and victimization in Korea.     

Affective empathy and cognitive role-taking in delinquent and nondelinquent youth

Ten male and 10 female delinquents were compared with 10 male and 10 female nondelinquents on a structured self-reported affective empathy task, an unstructured affective empathy task, and a cognitive role-taking measure. Differences between groups were found only on the unstructured empathy task, with delinquents performing more poorly than nondelinquents. Sex differences were noted in the delinquent sample on the structured empathy task, with males demonstrating less empathic responding than females. The role of empathic skills in the etiology of delinquent behavior is addressed. In addition, the need to further differentiate the cognitive and affective components of the empathic construct is emphasized.     

Dissociation between cognitive and affective empathy in youth with Asperger Syndrome

Autism spectrum conditions, among them Asperger Syndrome (AS), are generally described as entailing deficits in “cognitive empathy” or “theory of mind”. People with AS tend to have difficulties recognizing emotions, although the extent of these difficulties is still unclear. This study aimed to assess empathic profile in youth with AS (N = 38) and controls matched on age, sex and IQ. The study aimed to test if a dissociation between cognitive and affective empathy exists in AS. The study also aimed to explore emotion recognition in people with AS, and how it relates to emotional valence (positive, negative, and neutral emotions). The AS group scored lower than controls on cognitive empathy but scored within the average range on affective empathy. A deficit in emotion recognition was found in the AS group for positive emotions. These results confirm earlier findings in cognitive empathy and provide new insight about emotion recognition abilities in this population.     

Emotion Perception Accuracy and Bias in Face-to-Face Versus Cyberbullying

ABSTRACT. The authors investigated the association of traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization with emotion perception accuracy and emotion perception bias. Four basic emotions were considered (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear); 526 middle school students (280 females; M age = 12.58 years, SD = 1.16 years) were recruited, and emotionality was controlled. Results indicated no significant findings for girls. Boys with higher levels of traditional bullying did not show any deficit in perception accuracy of emotions, but they were prone to identify happiness and fear in faces when a different emotion was expressed; in addition, male cyberbullying was related to greater accuracy in recognizing fear. In terms of the victims, cyber victims had a global problem in recognizing emotions and a specific problem in processing anger and fear. It was concluded that emotion perception accuracy and bias were associated with bullying and victimization for boys not only in traditional settings but also in the electronic ones. Implications of these findings for possible intervention are discussed.     

The relationship between bullying, victimization, trait emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and empathy among preadolescents

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between bullying, victimization and a number of social-emotional variables such as trait emotional intelligence, empathy and self-efficacy in 206 elementary school 6th graders in Greece. Results indicated that boys reported significantly more direct and indirect bullying behaviors than girls, and higher victimization. Bullying was negatively correlated with overall self-efficacy and its academic component, trait emotional intelligence, empathy and its cognitive component, while victimization was negatively correlated with overall self-efficacy and its three dimensions, trait emotional intelligence, affective and cognitive empathy. Gender, trait emotional intelligence, and cognitive empathy significantly predicted bullying, whereas victimization was predicted by gender, trait emotional intelligence and affective empathy.     

Emotion Regulation and Empathy: Which Relation with Social Conduct?

A shared consensus among researchers deals with the positive association between the ability to effectively regulate and manage one's emotion and the engagement in empathic behavior and morally desirable actions. This study was designed to investigate how dispositional reliance on suppression and reappraisal differently impacted on the cognitive and affective components of empathy and on social conduct, distinguishing among prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. Two hundred nineteen middle adolescents were enrolled and fulfilled self-reports assessing emotion regulation strategies, empathy, and social behaviors. The results suggest that there are important distinctions among the emotion regulation strategies and the components of empathy as they relate to one another and to prosocial behavior and problem conduct. Specifically, cognitive reappraisal was related to prosocial behavior through empathic concern. While internalizing behavior was associated with emotion regulation strategies, externalizing behavior was only related to perspective-taking ability. Delimitations and practical implications were discussed.     

Cognitive and emotional control and perspective taking and their relations to empathy in 5-year-old children

The experience of empathy has been described as involving both emotional and cognitive components. The primary hypothesis tested in this study is that cognition and emotion are integrated within 2 distinct types of abilities-control and perspective taking-and that interactions between emotional and cognitive control and between affective and cognitive perspective taking would be related to children's empathic responding. We also hypothesized that boys' control and perspective-taking skills would be more strongly related to empathy than would those of girls. Fifty-seven 5-year-olds completed tasks measuring cognitive control, cognitive and affective perspective taking, and empathy, and their mothers completed a measure of children's emotional control. Results indicated that cognitive perspective taking moderated the relation between affective perspective taking and empathy. In addition, the relation between cognitive inhibitory control and empathy was moderated by gender; boys' control was positively related to empathy, but girls' control was marginally negatively related to empathy.     

Empathy in adolescence: Relations with emotion awareness and social roles

In this study, we aimed at gaining a better understanding of the individual differences contributing to feelings of empathy in adolescents. Therefore, we examined the extent to which emotion awareness (e.g., recognizing and appreciating one's own and the emotions of others) and a tendency for certain social roles (e.g., helping or teasing peers when being bullied) are related to adolescents’ levels of empathy. The sample was comprised of 182 adolescents aged between 11 and 16. Empathy and emotion awareness were assessed using self‐report measures. Peer reports were used to indicate adolescents’ different social roles: Bullying, defending the victim, and outsider behaviour. Outcomes demonstrated that evaluating one's own and the emotions of others, and more defending nominations were associated with both affective and cognitive empathy, whereas aspects of emotion awareness which are linked with internalizing symptoms were related to empathic distress, suggesting maladaptive emotion appraisal. Furthermore, outsider behaviour was associated with empathic distress, emphasizing a self‐focused orientation. In contrast, more bullying was negatively associated with cognitive empathy. Overall, these outcomes demonstrate that, besides social roles, emotion awareness is an important factor for adaptive empathic reactions, whereas emotion dysregulation might cause distress when witnessing the negative feelings of others.     

Bullying,Cyberbullying, Student Life Satisfaction and the Community of Chilean Adolescents

Feeling support from the community is a vital aspect of adolescents’ quality of life. Negative experiences at school, such as bullying and cyberbullying can have an adverse impact on adolescents’ life satisfaction that can expand to different domains of their lives including community variables. The goal of the present study was to examine the association between peer victimization, life satisfaction and community support among Chilean adolescents. We used a sample of 497 youths enrolled in grades 9 to 12 of public and private schools in different Chilean districts. Results indicate a negative association between bullying and cyberbullying behavior on community support through life satisfaction. Peer victimization can have negative consequences for youths at a personal level on their assessments of life satisfaction, which can expand to feeling less support from the community. Feeling less support from the community can be detrimental to healthy youth development and adolescents’ quality of life. Community prevention efforts can thus provide emotional support for youth victims of bullying and cyberbullying.

     

Cyberbullying: Neither an epidemic nor a rarity

There appears to be some perceptual confusion with regard to the scope and extent of online bullying based on media reports and a number of studies—some of which are theoretically sound and methodologically rigorous and some of which are not. In the following text, we share findings from our own research and those of our peers to highlight the actual prevalence rates of cyberbullying. We also depict an overlap between offline and online bullying based on empirical works to make clear that those who are mistreated in the real world and in cyberspace are not two separate populations. Finally, we champion the systemic approach of enhancing the emotional and relational climate within schools as the most promising way to stem the tide of adolescent aggression.     

初中生网络欺负的发展趋势：道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的作用

以496名初中生为研究对象, 对其网络欺负行为进行为期2年的4次追踪测试, 同时测试其道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注。采用潜变量增长模型探讨初中生网络欺负行为的发展轨迹, 并分析道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的影响。结果发现, (1)在2年时间内, 初中生网络欺负行为呈显著下降趋势, 起始水平与下降速度有显著负相关; (2)道德推脱能显著正向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 负向预测其下降趋势; (3)观点采择能够显著负向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 正向预测其下降趋势。上述结果肯定了道德推脱与观点采择对初中生网络欺负发展轨迹的预测作用, 以网络情境支持了道德推脱理论, 部分支持了社会信息处理模型。     

Effects of cooperative learning on peer relations,empathy, and bullying in middle school

Although researchers have developed prevention programs to reduce bullying, the results are mixed, and this may be due to a degree of uncertainty in their theoretical foundation. In particular, these programs share an emphasis on empathy as a personal attribute that can be enhanced among students through the application of specific curricula that will, in turn, contribute to a reduction in bullying behavior. However, the link between empathy and bullying is unclear, as is the ability of bullying prevention programs to actually impact student empathy. In this study, we used a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White) to evaluate the impact of cooperative learning on bullying, and we evaluated whether these effects were mediated by empathy and peer relatedness. Our results indicated that cooperative learning can significantly reduce bullying, and that some of this effect is transmitted via enhancements to affective empathy. Cooperative learning also demonstrated significant positive effects on cognitive empathy, but this did not have an effect on bullying. We also found that the effects of cooperative learning on cognitive and affective empathy were mediated by improvements in peer relatedness. These findings add a degree of clarity to the literature, and also represent the first time, as far as we are aware, that an antibullying program has been found to have significant effects on both cognitive and affective empathy.     

Being Empathic: The Role of Motivation to Empathize and the Nature of Target Emotions

The effect of the observer's motivation to empathize and the nature of the target person's emotions on empathy was examined. The study distinguished intellectual empathy, the extent to which the observer takes the target person's perspective, and empathic emotion, the extent to which the observer feels the target emotions. Intellectual empathy was measured via attribution errors that the observer made in attributing the target person's situation, and empathic emotion by the congruence between the emotions of the target person and the observer. The first experiment showed that pleasant emotions and sadness elicited more empathic emotion than did shame and anger. The second experiment revealed that motivation increased intellectual empathy when the target person was sad, and empathic emotion when the target person was happy. Intellectual empathy and empathic emotion appeared to be distinguishable constructs and could correlate under certain conditions.     

初中生网络欺负的发展趋势：道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的作用

以496名初中生为研究对象, 对其网络欺负行为进行为期2年的4次追踪测试, 同时测试其道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注。采用潜变量增长模型探讨初中生网络欺负行为的发展轨迹, 并分析道德推脱、观点采择与共情关注的影响。结果发现, (1)在2年时间内, 初中生网络欺负行为呈显著下降趋势, 起始水平与下降速度有显著负相关; (2)道德推脱能显著正向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 负向预测其下降趋势; (3)观点采择能够显著负向预测初中生网络欺负行为的起始水平, 正向预测其下降趋势。上述结果肯定了道德推脱与观点采择对初中生网络欺负发展轨迹的预测作用, 以网络情境支持了道德推脱理论, 部分支持了社会信息处理模型。     

The effects of dispositional empathy on emotional reactions and helping: A multidimensional approach

Recent research indicates that an affective state termed empathic emotion, and characterized by feelings of sympathy and compassion for another, is associated with altruistic responding. That is, persons experiencing high levels of empathic emotion offer help to another even when escape from the situation is easy. Persons experiencing high levels of another emotional state—personal distress—help much less when escape from the situation is easy. A study was conducted to test two related hypotheses. The first was that individual differences in empathy can influence empathic emotion and personal distress, above and beyond the influence of situational factors. The second hypothesis was that this effect of individual differences is due to variation in emotional and not cognitive empathy. The results provide support for both hypotheses. Regarding hypothesis 1, a significantly greater proportion of the variance in emotional reactions was accounted for when individual difference factors were included as predictors. Hypothesis 2 was also supported: It was found that a dispositional measure of emotional empathy was clearly related, and a dispositional measure of cognitive empathy was clearly unrelated, to these emotional reactions. The results provide support for a multidimensional view of empathy.     

The Moderating Role of Anxiety in the Associations of Callous-Unemotional Traits with Self-Report and Laboratory Measures of Affective and Cognitive Empathy

In a sample of detained male adolescents (n = 107; Mean age = 15.50; SD = 1.30), we tested whether anxiety moderated the association of CU traits with self-report and computerized measures of affective (emotional reactivity) and cognitive (affective facial recognition and Theory of Mind [ToM]) empathy. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that CU traits were negatively associated with self-reports of affective empathy and this association was not moderated by level of anxiety. Significant interactions revealed that CU traits were negatively associated with cognitive empathy (self-report) only at high levels of anxiety, whereas CU traits were positively associated with cognitive empathy on the ToM task only at low levels of anxiety. CU traits were also associated with greater fear recognition accuracy at low levels of anxiety. Implications for understanding and treating different variants of CU traits (i.e., primary and secondary) are discussed.     

From face to face: the contribution of facial mimicry to cognitive and emotional empathy

ABSTRACT

Despite advances in the conceptualisation of facial mimicry, its role in the processing of social information is a matter of debate. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between mimicry and cognitive and emotional empathy. To assess mimicry, facial electromyography was recorded for 70 participants while they completed the Multifaceted Empathy Test, which presents complex context-embedded emotional expressions. As predicted, inter-individual differences in emotional and cognitive empathy were associated with the level of facial mimicry. For positive emotions, the intensity of the mimicry response scaled with the level of state emotional empathy. Mimicry was stronger for the emotional empathy task compared to the cognitive empathy task. The specific empathy condition could be successfully detected from facial muscle activity at the level of single individuals using machine learning techniques. These results support the view that mimicry occurs depending on the social context as a tool to affiliate and it is involved in cognitive as well as emotional empathy.