Why Do Some Young Adults Turn Into Cyberbullies?

Researcher Felipe Soares explains what his latest study has to say about young adults and online antisocial behavior.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | June 14, 2023

A new study published in PLOS ONE found that young people may engage in cyberbullying out of impulsivity and a desire for higher social status rather than perceived anonymity or low self-esteem.

I recently spoke to researcher Felipe Soares of the University of the Arts London to understand what the findings of his new study mean in the context of ongoing efforts toward making the internet and social media a safer place to interact.

How does online disinhibition contribute to the likelihood of young adults becoming perpetrators of online antisocial behavior?

It is common sense to assert that individuals participate in online harassment or engage in hate speech due to the characteristics of the online environment, particularly the ability to post anonymously.

These factors are connected to online disinhibition, which pertains to the occurrence of individuals saying or doing things online that they would not typically engage in during face-to-face interactions.

In our study, we anticipated that young adults who experienced a greater sense of disinhibition on social media would display a higher propensity for engaging in online antisocial behavior.

However, we discovered no significant correlation between these two factors. This means that feeling more disinhibited in online spaces is not a contributing factor that heightens the likelihood of young adults becoming perpetrators of online antisocial behavior.

What are the specific motivations for cyber-aggression identified in the study, and how do they relate to the likelihood of being a perpetrator?

We have identified two predictors of engaging in online antisocial behavior – 'recreation' and 'reward.'

Both factors represent appetitive motivations for cyber-aggression, indicating that young adults who actively seek thrilling experiences or some form of reward are more likely to engage in online antisocial behavior.

'Recreation' specifically pertains to impulsive antisocial acts, whereas 'reward' relates to more calculated and premeditated acts that may evolve over time.

In summary, young individuals who partake in antisocial behavior online may be driven by a desire for excitement and the pursuit of positive emotions or social status among their peers.

Can you elaborate on the relationship between self-esteem and the likelihood of engaging in online antisocial behavior?

Previous studies found that low self-esteem was associated with bullying and cyberbullying, especially among children and teenagers.

However, this association was not present in our study. This means that self-esteem does not play a significant role in the likelihood of young adults' engagement in online antisocial behavior.

In what ways does cognitive empathy (or lack thereof) influence the decision to engage in online antisocial behavior?

Cognitive empathy refers to the capacity to comprehend the emotions of others.

In our study, we identified that lower cognitive empathy was associated with higher likelihood of engaging in online antisocial behavior.

What this association between the two factors means is that perpetrators may be engaging in online antisocial behavior because they do not fully understand how their targets feel.

Were there any surprising or unexpected findings in the study regarding the factors associated with young adults being perpetrators of online antisocial behavior?

We expected that self-esteem and online disinhibition would be associated with online antisocial behavior.

In addition to these two factors, we also expected that other motivations for cyber-aggression would play an important role, particularly 'rage' and 'revenge.'

These are both aversive motivations, meaning that people would engage in antisocial behavior in response to a previous act that targeted them.

Previous research found that children and teenagers tend to engage in bullying and cyberbullying as a response to previously being a target of such behaviors. We expected the same to happen among young adults, but our findings showed otherwise.

How can the results of this study be applied to develop effective interventions or prevention strategies to address cyberbullying among young adults?

Previous studies showed that adding friction and making social media users think about the content they are about to post can be effective in increasing their awareness and building empathy towards the target.

An experiment on Twitter showed that asking people to review their message before posting something offensive made many users rewrite their messages in a more polite way or prevented them from posting it.

With advanced machine learning models, it would be possible to implement tools to automatically identify toxic messages and encourage users to think about the content they are about to post.

Additionally, psychological interventions that highlight the negative effects of the behavior on the targets in professional and educational settings could be another alternative to reduce online antisocial behavior among young adults.