The sense of responsibility and bystanders’ prosocial behavior in cyberbullying: The mediating role of compassion and the moderating roles of moral outrage and moral disgust

Abstract

The sense of responsibility can play an important role in the behavior of college students involved in cyberbullying incidents. Research on the relationship between the sense of responsibility and bystander behavior in cyberbullying is limited. This study examined the relationship between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior in cyberbullying, focusing on investigating compassion as a mediator and moral emotions (i.e., moral outrage and moral disgust) as a moderator in this relation. A total of 1,114 Chinese college students (35.4% female), aged from 18 to 23 years (M = 19.55, SD = 1.05), completed an online questionnaire. Results showed that compassion played a partial mediating role in the relationship between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior. Moral outrage moderated the relationship between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior. Specifically, among participants with higher levels of moral outrage, the relationships between the sense of responsibility and prosocial cyberbystander behavior became much weaker. These results provide a new direction for promoting prosocial cyberbystander behavior.

Keywords

• cyberbullying
• cyberbystander behavior
• sense of responsibility
• compassion
• moral outrage
• moral disgust