Standing by: Pro-social Bystander Reactions to Online Political Hostility

Online political hostility, such as online hate speech, constitutes a challenge to democracy through negative effects on political participation. The challenge is amplified by widespread apathy among witnesses.

While research within political science has focused on the aggressors and explored how politically hostile behavior develops, much less attention is given to bystanders and the potential of pro-social bystander reactions to mitigate the negative impact of online political hostility.This project advances a new research agenda, shifting focus from explaining the anti-social behavior of online political hostility to explaining pro-social bystander reactions and their consequences.

Advancing the social-psychological study of bystanders, the project develops a new inter-disciplinary theory of pro-social bystander reactions, theorizing bystander decision-making in the context of online political hostility, and its short- and long-term consequences.In addition to theoretical innovation, the project breaks new methodological ground by combining survey and behavioral experiments with a longitudinal design, and developing an innovative methodology for bystander research: The Immersive Bystander Video Environment.The key empirical contributions of the project are to ground this new research agenda in real-time observations and first-hand experiences of bystander reactions to political hostility; to conduct a series of innovative survey and behavioral experiments, exploring the causes and consequences of pro-social bystander reactions; and to establish proof-of-concept as to which interventions can encourage pro-social bystander reactions.The project is unique in its scientific ambition: it addresses the challenge to democracy from online political hostility by turning attention to the unexplored role of bystanders in mitigating its immediate negative impact, and in longer-term prevention by strengthening norms of civility in political interactions.