The Role of the Bystander Effect on Body Shaming Intensity in Psychology Students in Malang City

Abstract

Body shaming is when the form of one’s body is criticized, either intentionally or not. Body shaming is considered a form of verbal bullying. In body shaming situations, there are actors, victims, and bystanders. A bystander can be an amplifier for the actors to keep carrying out the body shaming. This is called the bystander effect and it occurs when bystanders keep silent and do not support the victim of the body shaming. Body shaming is found commonly on university campuses. Psychology students are no exception, even though they are assumed to possess sensitivity and understanding of body shaming. This study aimed to examine the role of the bystander effect on the intensity of body shaming. A quantitative descriptive correlation approach was used and the research instruments employed were the bystander effect scale and the intensity of body shaming scale. 100 psychology students in Malang city participated. Simple linear regression was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that the bystander effect played a significant role in the intensity of body shaming. The contribution of the bystander effect variable to the body shaming intensity variable was 5.3%. Keywords: body shaming, bystander effect, students