Confronting a bully can be difficult, online or off. But a new study may suggest an alternative: Bystanders might be more willing to step in to help, its author says, if they’re able to do so without standing up to the bully directly.
For their study, Kelly P. Dillon, a graduate student in communication at Ohio State University, and Brad J. Bushman told 241 undergraduates they would be testing an online chat program. But during the “test,” the person supposedly charged with monitoring the chat began insulting one of the participants (who was actually a member of the research team). Only 10.4 percent of subjects directly intervened to address the insults — by, for instance, asking the chat monitor, ‘‘How are you being helpful at all right now?” A total of 68 percent, however, intervened indirectly, by giving the monitor or the chat program itself a bad evaluation.
“So many anti-bullying and anti-harassment intervention programs are ‘if you see something, say something,’ and this experimental data tells us that that’s a pretty high threshold,” she explained. “There are so many other ways that people can intervene.” She mentioned that the messaging app Yik Yak allows users to “down-vote” posts (that is, to express their disapproval by clicking a “down” arrow). After five down-votes, the post is removed — all without anyone having to say anything to an offensive poster directly. “My data suggests the more indirect ways you can give people to intervene, the more likely it would be for them to intervene.”
[For more of this story, written by Anna North, go to http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.c...ullying/?ref=opinion]
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