Reporting Mechanisms &

the Bystander Effect

Alice Fang and Sam King

Bystander effect

a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer help to a victim

Our question

How can the design of reporting systems impact the bystander effect?

text voice call web form

Parallels to HCI

- the power-law distribution of contribution

- “Simple requests lead to more compliance than do lengthy complex ones for decisions about which members do not care strongly” [Kraut and Resnik 2011].

1. A text-based system for reporting will increase the likelihood of reporting compared to a traditional voice-based system

2. The web form will have more reports than either phone cases, because it doesn’t require a change in form factor

( || )

Our hypothesis

Methods

- Chatroom!

Using chatrooms

- Easy to set up

- Simulation of extreme circumstances

- Standardized

- Scalable

Results

• Phone

• SMS

• Online

Results

• Phone: 0/6

• SMS: 0/7

• Online: 2/7

Results

• Phone: 0/6

• SMS: 0/7

• Online: 2/7

Hypothesis 1: Voice v Text?

Hypothesis 1: Voice v Text? False!

Clarity• Not ambiguous

• Users weren't nervous

Spam!• "i don't really trust those things anyway...phone

numbers seem suspicious."• "I prefer not to use my cell to call or text unidentified

numbers. It seems like I would be inviting spam into my phone."

Hypothesis 2: Phone v Online?

Hypothesis 2: Phone v Online?????

P = 0.13... but it seems like online helps.

Hypothesis 2: Phone v Online?????

P = 0.13... but it seems like online helps.

On the other hand...

Not Serious• "it happens a lot on the internet"

• "did not see any use that I would have defined as abusive."

Selfish• "I was not an active member of the chat so I didn't really

see how the asshole commentator affected me."

Ecological Validity

• Chat rooms have bystanders

• Voice is a good control

• Medium severity works

Ecological Validity: Bystanders

Is there danger?

• "I wasn't sure if this was just an experiment or if it was a real chat room."

Is it My Responsibility?

• "actual participants of the conversation have the power and the right to respond to what is being done in the conversation."

Can I help?

• "it doesn't seem like the action would be useful"

• "I didn't think it would make a difference whether I reported abuse or not."

Ecological Validity: Physical?

Conclusion

• We measured how much people were jerks

• People are jerks

• People are jerks over SMS, too

• People are worse jerks on their phones

(probably)

• People are jerks in chatrooms like in real life

• Researchers can study jerks in chatrooms