Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol 32(1), Feb 2026, 18-36; doi:10.1037/law0000458
Nonconsensual sexual behaviors that occur in nightlife settings pose unique policy challenges and encouraging bystander behavior (i.e., either to stop the actor or help the recipient; nonemotive words used to avoid priming participants) might be an effective way to prevent these behaviors. Few researchers, none Australian, have undertaken quantitative studies to identify factors that influence bystanders’ behavior in nightlife settings and the interactions between them. Australian participants (n = 332, 56% women) read eight vignettes depicting an incident where an actor grabbed the buttocks of a recipient, in which we manipulated the actor and recipient’s gender; relationship to the bystander; recipient and actor intoxication; and the recipient’s response to the behavior. Afterwards, participants answered seven questions to establish their personal and social norms regarding the specific vignette behavior, their likelihood to intervene in each case, and completed the Ambivalent Sexism and the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventories. We created two multilevel models to examine how the factors influenced bystanders’ likelihood to either stop the actor or help the recipient and whether there are any interactions between the factors. All factors examined, except intoxication, influenced bystanders likelihood of intervention. Gender (of the bystander, the actor, and the recipient) and the bystander’s relationship to those involved had a pervasive influence on bystander behavior with numerous interactions, sometimes nullifying or altering the impact of other factors. The findings of this exploratory study provide a better explanation to regulators of how factors such as gender influence bystander decision making and might explain previous inconsistencies in the bystander literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)