Perceived effectiveness of online vigilantism: The role of schadenfreude and moral grandstanding

초록

As online platforms have become arenas for informal justice, the psychological factors associated with online vigilantism warrant closer empirical attention. This study examines how Schadenfreude and moral grandstanding are associated with the perceived effectiveness of online vigilantism, and how these associations appear across participation levels. Data were collected from a proportional quota sample of 1000 Korean adults. One-way ANOVA, subgroup multiple regression analyses with bootstrapping, and full-sample moderated regression were conducted. Active participants reported significantly higher perceived effectiveness than passive participants and non-participants. In subgroup analyses, Schadenfreude was positively associated with perceived effectiveness across all groups. Prestige-seeking moral grandstanding was associated with perceived effectiveness among active and passive participants, whereas dominance-seeking moral grandstanding was associated with perceived effectiveness only among non-participants. The moderated regression showed no significant overall increase in explained variance after adding interaction terms. However, bootstrap-based coefficient-level results suggested that the association between dominance-seeking moral grandstanding and perceived effectiveness was weaker among passive and active participants than among non-participants. This pattern should be interpreted cautiously as exploratory rather than as strong evidence of moderation. Overall, favorable evaluations of online vigilantism may be related to emotional reward and moral self-expression. © 2026 Elsevier Ltd

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