BIAST · Bystander Interventions in Attentional Shifts and Trends in Bullying Contexts

Bullying is a pervasive social issue that severely impacts mental health, as underscored by the European Commission's comprehensive approach to mental health in 2023. Despite ongoing prevention efforts, bullying remains widespread in Europe and globally. As bullying is a social phenomenon, the role of bystanders is crucial for intervention and prevention. However, only about 17-19% of bystanders choose to intervene, and understanding the reasons behind this remains a key challenge. One significant research gap is the reliance on self-report measures, which capture conscious thoughts and reasoning but miss unconscious processes shaping bystander behavior. In this context, studying visual attention offers critical insights into how individuals understand social dynamics and react during bullying incidents. However, few studies in the bullying field have analyzed visual attention, relying on simplified stimuli such as vignettes or 2D videos and none have deeply examined bystanders' behavior. Therefore, the overarching aim is to identify recurring attention patterns associated with different intervention behaviors. The project has two key objectives: 1) to develop and validate VR scenarios that simulate realistic bullying environments, integrated with eye-tracking to study attentional patterns; 2) to investigate how bystanders’ visual attention correlates with their intervention choices while considering the moderating effects of personal variables such as empathy and moral disengagement. BIAST will be supported through a secondment at the University of Bologna. This interdisciplinary project will contribute new theoretical insights into bystanders’ bullying intervention, advance research in visual attention, and inform future anti-bullying programs. Additionally, the Marie Curie fellowship will allow me to gain interdisciplinary expertise, build international collaborations, and strengthen my leadership skills in bullying research.