Study finds how empathy in adolescents helps to prevent cyberbullying

Bullying has become easier and often more serious as a result of social media, gaming platforms, and other online communication technologies, affecting many of our schools, families, and communities. Cyberbullying, the online version of school-based bullying, is likewise linked to a slew of detrimental emotional, psychological, physiological, and behavioural repercussions, according to research.

The findings of the research were published in the Journal of Early Adolescence. While the topic has received widespread attention in the last decade, little is known about its relationship with empathy.

Even less is known about how empathy is related to bias-based cyberbullying: harm and abuse toward others because of one's identity (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender or religion) - a phenomenon of increasing concern against the backdrop of rising hate speech and hate crimes across the nation.

Researchers were particularly interested in two types of empathy - affective and cognitive - and how they differed in children who cyberbullied. Affective empathy is generally automatic and an unconscious reaction where the feelings of another are felt and shared, while cognitive empathy involves an intentional placing of oneself in the position of another to identify their mental state and understand their emotions.