How do I react? Reactions to observing cyber-harassment
Witnesses of cyber-harassment can play an important role in intervening against such harassment. In a scenario study, we examined witness reactions to cyber-harassment. In particular, we were interested in witnesses’ first reactions, and whether these first reactions were appropriate reactions. Thus, we drew on the logic of the “take-the-first” heuristic, according to which decision makers should decide on the first option they generated. On the basis of participants’ reported reactions to three video vignettes, we derived nine response categories ranging from joining the perpetrator to doing nothing to reporting the incident to an authority. The results were largely consistent with the logic of the take-the-first heuristic. The responses of participants to the question of “how do you react?” mapped quite well onto the responses of other participants to the question of “what is most appropriate reaction?” for two out of three scenarios. Moreover, participants who responded to the question of “how do you react?” ultimately also predominantly judged their first generated option as the most appropriate option for reacting to the cyber-harassment.