Limited Evidence that the Gender Composition of Public Conflicts is Associated with Bystander Intervention: A Video-Observational Study

Research suggests that the gender composition of conflict parties influences how bystanders perceive violence, reflecting constructions of masculinity and femininity that promote women’s protection. Relying on CCTV footage of public conflicts in the Netherlands, we ran logistic regression models at the situational level (N = 66 conflicts) and multilevel models at the individual level (N = 1,954 bystanders) to examine the relationship between conflict parties’ gender composition and bystander intervention. Further, we tested whether perceived intimate ties between conflict parties were associated with intervention. Gender composition was not linked to intervention probability, but patterns in the data point towards less bystander intervention in intimate conflicts, though not statistically clear. Understanding contextual conflict variations is crucial for effective bystander intervention strategies.