Purpose

Online trolling is a detrimental behavior for consumers and service businesses. Although online trolling research is steadily increasing, service research has yet to thoroughly explore how this behavior impacts businesses. Further, the role of bystanders, consumers who witness a victim (business) being trolled, remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is thus to introduce online trolling to the service literature and begin to identify when (types of online troll content) and why (empathy and psychological reactance) bystanders are likely to intervene and support a service business being trolled by posting positive eWOM.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a two-study (Study 1 n = 313; Study 2 n = 472) experimental design with scenarios of a service business experiencing online trolling (moral versus sadistic). Participants' responses as bystanders were collected via an online survey.

Findings

Results reveal bystanders are more likely to post positive eWOM to support a service organization experiencing sadistic trolling. Psychological reactance is shown to mediate the relationship between trolling type and positive eWOM. Further, spotlight analysis demonstrates that bystanders with higher levels of empathy are more likely to post positive eWOM, whereas bystanders with low levels of empathy are likely to have a significantly higher level of psychological reactance.

Originality/value

This research is among the first in the service literature to specifically explore the consumer misbehavior of online trolling. Further, it provides new perspectives to online trolling by probing the role of bystanders and when and why they are likely to support service organizations being trolled.

中文翻译：

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我最好说点什么！同理心如何塑造旁观者的心理反应和对服务组织在线恶搞的干预

目的

在线恶搞对消费者和服务企业来说是一种有害的行为。尽管在线恶搞研究正在稳步增长，但服务研究尚未彻底探索这种行为如何影响企业。此外，旁观者、目睹受害者（企业）被恶意攻击的消费者的角色在很大程度上仍未得到探索。因此，本文的目的是将在线恶搞引入服务文献，并开始确定旁观者何时（在线恶搞内容的类型）以及为什么（同理心和心理反应）可能通过发布积极的信息来干预和支持被恶搞的服务企业。电子口碑。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究采用两项研究（研究 1 n  = 313；研究 2 n  = 472）实验设计，其中包括服务企业遭遇在线恶搞（道德与虐待）的场景。通过在线调查收集参与者作为旁观者的反应。

发现

结果显示，旁观者更有可能发布积极的电子口碑来支持遭受虐待的服务组织。心理反应被证明可以调节恶搞类型和积极的网络口碑之间的关系。此外，聚光灯分析表明，同理心水平较高的旁观者更有可能发布积极的电子口碑，而同理心水平较低的旁观者可能有更高水平的心理抗拒。

原创性/价值

这项研究是服务文献中第一个专门探讨消费者在线恶搞行为的研究。此外，它还通过探讨旁观者的角色以及他们何时以及为何可能支持被攻击的服务组织，为在线攻击提供了新的视角。