Empathy and bystander defending in cyberbullying: Belief in a just world and moral identity as serial mediators

We investigated the relationships among empathy, belief in a just world, moral identity, and bystander-defending behavior in the context of cyberbullying among Chinese university students. Participants were 1,563 university students from Hebei, Henan, and Guangdong Provinces, who completed the Basic Empathy Scale, the Belief in a Just World Scale, the Moral Identity Scale, and the Bystander Behavior in Cyberbullying Questionnaire. We found positive correlations between empathy, belief in a just world, moral identity, and bystander-defending behavior in cyberbullying. Empathy had a significant direct effect on bystander-defending behavior in cyberbullying. Moreover, belief in a just world and moral identity each independently mediated this relationship, with a significant chain mediation effect also being observed. These findings suggest that empathy, along with belief in a just world and moral identity, forms a meaningful pathway to understanding and promoting bystander-defending behavior in cyberbullying, offering new directions for future research and intervention design.