TY - JOUR
T1 - Defending Others Online
T2 - The Influence of Observing Formal and Informal Social Control on One’s Willingness to Defend Cyberhate Victims
AU - Costello, Matthew
AU - Hawdon, James
AU - Reichelmann, Ashley V.
AU - Oksanen, Atte
AU - Blaya, Catherine
AU - Llorent, Vicente J.
AU - Räsänen, Pekka
AU - Zych, Izabela
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was supported by the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment at Virginia Tech. The opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute for Society, Culture and Environment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/8
Y1 - 2023/8
N2 - This paper examines factors correlated with online self-help—an informal form of social control vis-à-vis intervention—upon witnessing a cyberhate attack. Using online surveys from 18- to 26-year-old respondents in the United States, we explore the roles of various types of online and offline formal and informal social control mechanisms on the enactment of self-help through the use of descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression. The results of the multivariate analyses indicate that online collective efficacy is positively related to self-help, as is having close ties to individuals and groups offline and online. Formal online social control, however, is not significantly related to engaging in self-help. Other findings demonstrate that personal encounters with cyberhate affect the likelihood that an individual will intervene when witnessing an attack, and that individuals with high levels of empathy are more likely to intervene to assist others. This work indicates that pro-social online behavior is contagious and can potentially foster online spaces in which harmful behaviors, such as propagating cyberhate, are not condoned.
AB - This paper examines factors correlated with online self-help—an informal form of social control vis-à-vis intervention—upon witnessing a cyberhate attack. Using online surveys from 18- to 26-year-old respondents in the United States, we explore the roles of various types of online and offline formal and informal social control mechanisms on the enactment of self-help through the use of descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression. The results of the multivariate analyses indicate that online collective efficacy is positively related to self-help, as is having close ties to individuals and groups offline and online. Formal online social control, however, is not significantly related to engaging in self-help. Other findings demonstrate that personal encounters with cyberhate affect the likelihood that an individual will intervene when witnessing an attack, and that individuals with high levels of empathy are more likely to intervene to assist others. This work indicates that pro-social online behavior is contagious and can potentially foster online spaces in which harmful behaviors, such as propagating cyberhate, are not condoned.
KW - cyberhate
KW - online hate
KW - self-help
KW - social control
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph20156506
DO - 10.3390/ijerph20156506
M3 - Article
C2 - 37569046
AN - SCOPUS:85167743147
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 20
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 15
M1 - 6506
ER -
