Develop a novel, data-driven conceptualization and operationalizationof what it means to be a online bystander and what pro-social bystander reactions to online political hostility entail.
Develop and test an innovative, interdisciplinary framework for explaining pro-social bystander reactions to online political hostility, integrating insights from social psychology on helping behaviour in non-political emergencies with political science studies on political hostility.
Theorize and investigate the consequences of individual pro-social reactions, specifying feedback mechanisms of how pro-social reactions may animate further immediate reactions and may help change norms of civility and apathy in the longer run.
Use these insights to test whether pro-social bystander reactions to online political hostility can be effectively encouraged through campaign interventions or through the design of social media platforms.
Contribute to methodological innovations that make it possible to conduct empirical studies of an evasive phenomenon across national contexts and time, and in a realistic, yet ethical manner.