Is high exposure to antisocial media content associated with increased participation in malicious online trolling? exploring the moderated mediation model of hostile attribution bias and empathy

Malicious online trolling is prevalent among Chinese college students and has recently garnered extensive attention from researchers due to the substantial harm it causes to the victims and the damage it inflicts on the online environment. Most previous studies have focused on examining how personal traits related to malicious online trolling. Further comprehensive research is needed to explore the mechanisms linking external environmental factors (antisocial media exposure) and malicious online trolling. A total of 1259 Chinese college students completed questionnaires regarding malicious online trolling, antisocial media exposure, hostile attribution bias, and empathy. The results indicated a positive association between antisocial media exposure and malicious online trolling among Chinese college students, with hostile attribution bias serving as a mediating factor. Furthermore, the direct and mediated paths between antisocial media exposure and malicious online trolling were moderated by empathy. Specifically, as the level of empathy increased among college students, the relations between the variables all weakened. Excessive exposure to antisocial media content among college students may trigger hostile attribution bias and lead to more malicious online trolling behavior. However, the relation between antisocial media exposure and malicious online trolling, hostile attribution bias and malicious online trolling, was attenuated when college students' empathy levels were high.

Effects of interpretation bias modification on hostile attribution bias and reactive cyber-aggression in Chinese adolescents: a randomized controlled trial

Highly aggressive individuals tend to interpret others' motives and intentions as hostile in both offline and online social situations. The current study examined whether hostile interpretation bias can be modified to influence cyber-aggression in Chinese middle school students using an interpretation bias modification program. Gender differences and the heterogeneity of cyber-aggression were also investigated since previous studies suggest that they play important roles in determining the intervention effect. One hundred and twenty-one middle school students were randomized to receive either an eight-session interpretation bias modification task (CBM-I; n = 61) or an eight-session placebo control task (PCT; n = 60) over four weeks. Measures of hostile attribution bias and cyber-aggression were administered at baseline, post-training, and at one week follow-up. Results showed that compared to PCT, participants in CBM-I showed a significant reduction in reactive cyber-aggression. However, contrary to our expectation, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the reduction of hostile attribution bias after training. The moderated mediation analysis revealed that the effect of CBM-I on hostile attribution bias and the mediating role of hostile attribution bias in the relationship between CBM-I condition and reactive cyber-aggression was only observed among females, but not among males. These findings provide initial evidence for the potential of CBM-I in reducing hostile attribution bias and cyber-aggression. However, for male students, CBM-I might not be effective enough as expected.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04433-3.

Loving Your Parents and Treating Others Well: The Effect of Filial Piety on Cyberbullying Perpetration and Its Functional Mechanism Among Chinese Graduate Students

Although a few studies have investigated the effect of family factors on cyberbullying perpetration, these studies have mainly focused on the roles of parents. Few studies have examined the roles of children. In traditional Chinese culture, the filial piety belief (FPB) refers to the viewpoint that considers the roles of children in a family context. We suggest that how children consider their roles in a family might also influence cyberbullying perpetration. Based on the dual filial piety model and social information processing model, this study examined the effect of FPB on cyberbullying perpetration and tested its mediation of hostile attribution bias. In total, 588 graduate students participated. The participants completed several questionnaires, including the FPB scale, the social information processing-attribution response questionnaire, and the cyberbullying scale. The results were as follows. First, reciprocal filial piety (RFP) was significantly negatively correlated with hostile attribution bias and cyberbullying perpetration, while authoritarian filial piety (AFP) was significantly positively correlated with hostile attribution bias and cyberbullying perpetration. Second, hostile attribution bias mediated the association between FPB (comprising AFP and RFP) and cyberbullying perpetration; RFP decreased hostile attribution bias, while AFP increased hostile attribution bias; and hostile attribution bias increased cyberbullying perpetration. The current study expands our understanding of the influential factors and formation mechanism of cyberbullying perpetration in Chinese culture.