The Effect Of Trait Empathy And State Empathy On Helping Behavior Of Bystanders In Different Cyber Bullying Situations

With the rapid development of the Internet,the form of bullying has gradually expanded from offline to online,and cyber bullying is common.As the largest group in the cyber bullying,the attitude and behavior of bystanders towards the whole bullying event often have an impact on the psychology of the bullied and the trend of the bullying event,and even decide the result of the cyber bullying event.Many studies have shown that empathy is an important factor affecting helping behavior.Trait empathy is a stable personality trait,while state empathy is an emotional response to a situation.The study of bystander’s helping behavior should not only consider individual factors,but also combine with situational factors.The reason of being bullied and the coping style of the bullied are very important situational factors in cyber bullying.Therefore,based on the group of college students,this study takes the bystander in cyber bullying as the research object to explore the influence of trait empathy and state empathy on the helping behavior of bystander in different situations of cyber bullying.In study 1,an experimental approach was used to explore the effect of trait empathy on bystander’s helping behavior in different cyber bullying situations.Based on the scores of the trait empathy questionnaire,the top 27% were selected as the high trait empathy group,while the bottom 27% were selected as the low trait empathy group.A high trait empathy group of 132 people and a low trait empathy group of 132 people were obtained.The high trait empathy group and the low trait empathy group were randomly divided into four types of online bullying situations.The online bullying situation consists of two written materials,describing the reasons why the victim was bullied and their coping styles.The experiment adopted a three-factor intersubject experimental design,and the independent variable was bystander’s trait empathy level(high vs.low),the reason for the bullying(physical characteristics vs.behavior),and the way the victim copes(positive vs.negative);The dependent variable is the helping behavior of the bystander.The results showed that the main effect of trait empathy was significant,and the high trait empathy group was significantly more willing to help than the low trait empathy group.The main effect of the reason of bullying was significant,because the physical characteristics of the bullied group was significantly higher than the behavior of the bullied group.The main effect of the coping style of the bullied was significant,and the willingness of the positive coping group was significantly higher than that of the negative coping group.The interaction effect between trait empathy and the coping style of the bullied was significant,that is,college students with high trait empathy level were more willing to help the bullied when they actively dealt with the cyber bullying.The interaction effect between the reason of being bullied and the coping style of the bullied is significant,that is,in the bullying event caused by the physical characteristics of the bullied,when the bullied actively cope,the bystander is more willing to help.The interaction effects of trait empathy and bullying reasons,and the third-order interaction effects of trait empathy,bullying reasons and bullying coping styles were not significant.In study 2,an experimental method was used to explore the influence of state empathy on bystander’s helping behavior in different cyber bullying situations.297 paid college students were recruited online and randomly divided into 8 experimental groups,with 35 to 39 participants in each group.The situational induction method was used to initiate state empathy,and the participants were provided with stories to initiate state empathy through different guidance language.The online bullying situation was composed of two paragraphs of text material,describing the reasons for the victim’s bullying and their coping strategies.The experiment adopted a three-factor intersubject experimental design,and the independent variable was the primes of state empathy(control vs.priming),the reason for the bullying(physical characteristics vs.behavior),and the way the victim copes(positive vs.negative);The dependent variable is the helping behavior of the bystander.The results showed that the main effect of state empathy was significant.State empathy priming group had significantly higher willingness to help than state empathy control group.The main effect of the reason of bullying was significant,because the physical characteristics of the bullied group was significantly higher than the behavior of the bullied group.The main effect of the coping style of the bullied was significant,and the willingness of the positive coping group was significantly higher than that of the negative coping group.The interaction effect between state empathy and the reason of being bullied was significant,that is,after state empathy was activated,the bystander’s willingness to help was higher in the bullying event caused by the physical characteristics of the bullied.The interaction effect between the reason of being bullied and the coping style of the bullied is significant,that is,in the bullying event caused by the physical characteristics of the bullied,when the bullied actively cope,the bystander is more willing to help.The three-order interaction effect of state empathy,the reason of bullying and the coping style of the bullied was significant,that is,after activating state empathy,in the bullying event caused by the physical characteristics of the bullied,when the bullied actively responded,the bystander’s willingness to help was higher.The interaction between state empathy and the coping style of the bullied was not significant.Therefore,both the individual factors(trait empathy,state empathy)and the situational factors(the reason for the bullying,the coping style of the bulliing)of the bystander in cyber bullying will affect the helping behavior of the bystander.