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Prosocial priming and bystander effect in an online context.
Costanza Scaffidi Abbate1, Raffaella Misuraca2, Chiara Vaccaro1
1Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Frontiers in Psychology
|August 29, 2022
Summary
Priming prosociality reduced the bystander effect online. Even with many virtual bystanders, people helped when primed with prosocial behavior, demonstrating a key finding in social psychology.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Online Behavior
Background:
- The bystander effect describes reduced helping when others are present.
- Online environments present unique contexts for social psychological phenomena.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if priming prosociality can mitigate the bystander effect in an online setting.
- To examine the interaction between the number of bystanders and prosocial priming.
Main Methods:
- Participants received a help request email in a 2x2 design (Bystander presence: 0 vs. 14; Prosocial priming: present vs. absent).
- Response rates to the email were measured as the primary outcome.
Main Results:
- A significant bystander effect was observed, with fewer responses when many virtual bystanders were present.
- Prosocial priming eliminated the bystander effect, increasing responsiveness even with numerous bystanders.
- The presence of 14 virtual bystanders significantly reduced email responsiveness compared to zero bystanders.
Conclusions:
- Prosocial priming can effectively counteract the bystander effect in online environments.
- These findings highlight the malleability of social behavior through situational priming.
- The study contributes to understanding bystander intervention in digital contexts.
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