Cyberbullying refers to a form of repeated harassment that uses electronic information communication tools. Specifically, individuals can insult, threaten, defame, harass, or isolate others by posting comments, uploading photos or videos, or sending instant messages. College students, who frequently use the internet or social media for interpersonal communication, are more prone to experiencing cyberbullying. Previous studies have indicated that college students who suffer from cyberbullying may exhibit anxiety, depression, academic difficulties, and in severe cases, even suicidal ideation. Cyberbullying is usually described as a group interaction process that includes not only the binary interaction between the bullies and victims, but also bystanders who witness the bullying. Generally speaking, negative bystander behaviors can exacerbate cyberbullying, while positive bystander behaviors can prevent further deterioration. Previous studies have pointed out that intervention measures for cyberbullying should focus on the interaction process among victims, bullies, and bystanders, rather than targeting a single group or role. Therefore, it is necessary to factors that influence bystander behaviors from the perspective of group interaction. In addition, studies have indicated that bystander intentions are not equivalent to their behaviors, participants may report intentions but not engage in corresponding behaviors. However, few studies have clearly distinguished between bystander intentions and behaviors, which may fail to provide constructive intervention strategies.

The present study aimed to examine the influential factors of bystander behaviors in cyberbullying among college students from the perspective of group interaction and the arousal: cost-reward model, exploring the roles of self-disclosure (victims/arousal), bullying severity (bullies/cost), and social distance (bystanders/reward).

Prior to conducting the formal experiment, we evaluated the experimental materials through a pre-experiment. The formal experiment presents cyberbullying situations through video methods. Two hundred college students (M_age = 21.20, 48.50% boys) were assigned to eight different experimental conditions to explore the influences of victims’ self-disclosure, severity of cyberbullying, and social distance towards bystander behaviors on cyberbullying. Self-disclosure and severity of cyberbullying were divided into high and low groups based on the results of the pre-experiment. Social distance was manipulated in the experiments: participants in the distant group observed the victim as a stranger, while participants in the close group were informed that the victim was a friend of theirs.

The results showed that: (1) Lower level of victim’s self-disclosure resulted in more positive bystander behaviors in cyberbullying: F(1, 24) = 24.38, p <.001, η²=.12; (2) Closer social distance between victims and bystanders resulted in more positive bystander behavior in cyberbullying: F(1, 24) = 66.21, p <.001, η² =.26; (3) The three-way interaction effect of victim’s self-disclosure, severity, and social distance towards bystander behaviors on cyberbullying was significant: F(7, 192) = 10.11, p <.01, η² =.05. When the victim’s self-disclosure was higher, in the high-severity events, the bystander behaviors were more positive towards the closer victims compared with the distant victims (F(7, 192) = 62.96, p <.001, η² =.33). In the low-severity events, there was no significant difference between the closer victims and the distant victims (F(7, 192) =.08, p >.05, η² =.04). When the victim’s self-disclosure was lower, bystanders’ behaviors were more positive towards the closer victim regardless of whether bullying severity was high (F(7, 192) = 32.93, p <.001, η² =.17) or low (F(7, 192) = 10.16, p <.01, η² =.05).

Overall, the present study is grounded in the perspective of group interaction and the arousal-cost-reward model of cyberbullying. Using experimental methods, this study comprehensively examines the impact of self-disclosure, bullying severity, social distance, as well as their interactions on bystander behaviors. The results provide a novel approach to intervening in bystander behaviors in cyberbullying.