Recent estimates suggest that the prevalence of experiencing workplace mistreatment is over 40%. Interestingly, the harmful effects of such mistreatment extend beyond the victims themselves to those who are third-party witnesses. A new meta-analysis (or statistical combination of many past studies) examines how third parties react emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively to witnessing mistreatment. It also explores how third parties may not have uniformly negative reactions. In fact, some people may even take pleasure in witnessing mistreatment, which is called schadenfreude.
THIRD-PARTY REACTIONS TO MISTREATMENT
The researchers (Hill et al., 2024) integrated the results of 105 research studies on third-party reactions to mistreatment. One notable finding was that the effects of simply witnessing mistreatment were similar in magnitude to the victim’s own reactions. The third-party reactions were multi-faceted. First, witnesses felt more empathy towards the victim and engaged in behavior that attempted to help the person. In addition, they also felt anger towards the perpetrator and in turn acted antisocially (e.g., excluding, undermining, or avoiding the perpetrator).
Surprisingly, the researchers also found that, for some people, witnessing mistreatment was related to schadenfreude – feeling pleasure from the event. This actually increased positive evaluations of the perpetrator, which in turn led to behavior that intended to benefit the perpetrator. Feeling schadenfreude also resulted in negatively evaluating the victim and in turn acting antisocially toward the person. Thus, witnessing mistreatment did not always result in feeling sorry for or helping victims.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Results show how impactful it can be to witness the mistreatment of a coworker. Thus, organizations should attempt to address this. One suggestion is to ask employees about witnessing mistreatment in organizational pulse surveys, so that this behavior can be measured and tracked over time. Supervisors can also be trained on how to not only help victims, but also how to address people who witnessed mistreatment. This could be a leadership skill that is tracked and rewarded. Lastly, organizations should help employees lessen their anger and increase empathy, such as by fostering a positive, emotionally supportive culture.
Hill, E. T., Colquitt, J. A., Burgess, R., Priesemuth, M., & McClain, J. T. (2024). Are observer reactions to mistreatment uniformly negative? Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication.
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