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Researchers have proposed that bystander called the police, showing passive-destructive
responses to workplace bullying can be responses – though this story and the theory
categorised in two ways: active versus itself have been challenged.
passive, and constructive versus destructive.
The former describes how proactive the That said, the effect seems to hold in more
response is in addressing the bullying ambiguous situations, such as bullying, that
situation, while the latter shows whether the don’t amount to a medical emergency. The
response is intended to improve or worsen the bystander effect explains their actions by
situation for targets. proposing that individuals are less likely to
help when there are other people present.
This gives four types of bystanders. There This makes us feel less personally responsible
are active-constructive bystanders, who to act, especially in ambiguous situations.
proactively and directly seek to improve the
bullying situation by, for example, reporting In another recent paper, we tried to delve
the bully or confronting them. There are also deeper into the psychological processes
passive-constructive bystanders who don’t underlying bystander behaviour. Bullying
directly “solve” the bullying, but listen to or is often subjective, with people interpreting
sympathise with the target. the same situation differently. So, we
were interested in understanding what
Passive-destructive bystanders, on the interpretations lead to active-constructive
other hand, typically avoid the bullying and responses, which are the most helpful.
“do nothing”. While this may sound benign
to some, targets may view passivity as For active-constructive responses to occur,
condoning the bully’s actions. Finally, active employees must perceive that the incident is
destructive-bystanders actively worsen the severe enough to warrant intervention. This
bullying situation, for example, by openly can be ambiguous – is that offhand remark
siding with the bully or setting up situations just a joke or something more?
where the bully can pick on people. They Next, employees must perceive that the victim
effectively become secondary bullies.
does not deserve what is happening to them.
Work relationships are complex and in certain
The psychology behind bystanding cases, such as when group performance is
Why do so many people fail to intervene when key, employees may not approve of others
witnessing something they know is wrong or making mistakes or inconveniencing them and
harmful? The most famous theory to explain may perceive mistreatment as justified.
the phenomenon, known as the bystander
effect, was inspired by the murder of Kitty Finally, employees must perceive that they
Genovese. Kitty was a young woman in 1960s are able to intervene effectively. There are
New York who was stabbed to death outside many cases where employees wish to act
her apartment building while 38 residents but don’t feel able to, such as if the bully is a
watched from their windows. Initially, it was supervisor, or if previous attempts to intervene
reported that not a single person intervened or have failed.
14 July 2022
