The Framing of Past Bullying Experiences: Impact on Social Decision-Making, Emotions, and Predictions of the Future

Studies on framing demonstrate that the way ideas are presented influences emotions and decision-making. Many bullying interventions involve competing frames, with some discussing bullying in terms of negative effects and others in terms of resiliency. Gender is closely related to frames about bullying, as culturally communicated expectations contribute to differences in individuals’ internalized frames. The current cross-sectional study explores how resiliency and negative effects frames in the context of bullying impact emotion and social decision-making across males and females. Participants ( N = 92) ages 19–30 ( M = 27.97, SD = 2.17) answered questionnaires around self-construal, internalized beliefs about bullying, and current bullying experiences before being randomized to write about a time they either demonstrated resiliency to or negative effects from bullying, balanced by males and females. The participants completed questionnaires regarding predictions of future bullying, current emotions, and social decision-making. The four groups were entered in a MANOVA and compared across dependent measures to better understand how both frames and gender affected future predictions of bullying, current emotions, and social decision-making. The overall model was significant (Wilks Lamda = .51, F = 1.94, p = 0.004, η p 2 = .20). Next, a MANOVA compared males versus females on self-construal, beliefs about bullying, and current levels of bullying to better understand pre-existing gender-based differences. The overall model was significant (Wilks Lamda, F = 3.41, p = 0.00). These variables that differed across gender were entered as covariates into a MANCOVA model which compared the four groups across dependent measures, with the aim to elucidate factors influencing the gender by frame effect. The overall model was significant (Wilks Lamda = 0.57, F (30,228) = 1.81, p = 0.009, η p 2 = 0.20). The results demonstrate that frames around bullying influence emotions and social decision-making, and that this impact differs across gender.