Current Events > Study finds online trolls are actually just assholes all the time

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://gizmodo.com/online-trolls-actually-just-assholes-all-the-time-stud-1847575210

The internet doesnt turn people into assholes so much as it acts as a massive megaphone for existing ones, according to work by researchers at Aarhus University.

In a study published in the American Political Science Review, the researchers used representative surveys and behavioral studies from the U.S. and Denmark to establish the reason why people broadly perceive the online environment as more hostile than offline interaction. A pre-print version of the article is available here.

The team considered the mismatch hypothesis, which in the context of online behavior refers to the theory that there is a conflict between human adaptation for face-to-face interpersonal interaction and the newer, impersonal online environment. That hypothesis more or less amounts to the idea that humans who would be nicer to each other in person might feel more inclined to get nasty when interacting with other pseudonymous internet users. The researchers found little evidence for that.

Instead, their data pointed to online interactions largely mirroring offline behavior, with people predisposed to aggressive, status-seeking behavior just as unpleasant in person as behind a veil of online anonymity, and choosing to be jerks as part of a deliberate strategy rather than as a consequence of the format involved. They also found some evidence that less hostile people simply arent as interested in talking about politics on the internet. These results were similar in both the U.S. and Denmark, even though the two countries have very different political cultures with differing levels of polarization. (For example, a hostile far-right mob organized on social media didnt recently storm the Danish Parliament.)

We found that people are not more hostile online than offline; that hostile individuals do not preferentially select into online (vs. offline) political discussions; and that people do not over-perceive hostility in online messages, the researchers wrote. We did find some evidence for another selection effect: Non-hostile individuals select out from all, hostile as well as non-hostile, online political discussions.

Alexander Bor, a post-doc at the Aarhus University Political Science Department and co-author of the study, told Engineering & Technology there are many psychological reasons to get angry online, including that users do not see the faces of those we are arguing with and the fast-paced written form of communication can easily lead to misunderstandings.

https://twitter.com/boralexander1/status/1417120107055259651

Yet, we also know from psychological research that not everyone has a personality that is equally disposed to aggression, Bor told the site. In the end, these personality differences turn out to be a much stronger driver of online hostility.

Michael Bang Petersen, a professor of political science at the university and study co-author, told Engineering & Technology that the study suggested the reason online political debates are widely perceived as hellholes has to do with the visibility of aggressive behaviour online. For example, the study indicated that people dont often feel personally attacked in either offline or online settings, but thanks to the public nature of the internet, they are far likelier to see trolls harassing and attacking others online than in person.

Online discussions occur in large public networks and the behaviour of an internet troll is much more visible than the behaviour of this same person in an offline setting, Petersen told the site.

https://twitter.com/M_B_Petersen/status/1417125756384251908

The finding that individuals arent necessarily more or less prone to toxic behavior on the internet dovetails with some prior research and reporting emphasizing that toxic online political discussions are disproportionately driven by malicious individuals taking advantage of the megaphone offered. One study published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal in 2017 found that the most aggressive online trolls may tend to be high in cognitive empathy, which allows them to identify when theyre pushing someone elses buttons, but low in affective empathy, enabling them to avoid feeling bad or internalizing the suffering they cause. Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard affiliate and data engineer Devin Gaffney wrote for Bennington Magazine that as platforms have optimized for connectedness, they have negligently optimized for the growth of mob-like communities connecting around noxious yet identity-defining goals. One 2018 study in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research found a bleed-over effect in which nasty online comments increase perceived bias in a news blog post to which they are connected, essentially dragging down the whole discussion with them.

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@PoundGarden

S. Pikachu.

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@catboy

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@Trickfinger

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All Twitter users > jail.

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Wow what a useless study

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Smackems posted...

Wow what a useless study

triggered??

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nfearurspecimn posted...

triggered??

Yes

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Hostile people online will also be hostile people in real life, seems pretty reasonable

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@PoundGarden

@Doom_Art

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Oh that makes sense. Im as nice irl as i am online tbh

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MrKapowski posted...

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I would imagine trolls have to bite the bullet and shut up in professional settings irl, or they're really just isolated there and stay in the basement otherwise.

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false, i'm nice and well mannered irl. for context i'm a well off asian AMAB in a high paying white collar job

i go on this site to insult CEmen every chance i get cuz it's fun. and when i get modded i make sure to insult the online janitors as i take that -3 hit


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OdafeOweh posted...

I dont know about that

Theres a certain user here whos a major asshole who described himself as having major social anxiety IRL and a debilitating condition making it extremely difficult for him to communicate with strangers.

Maybe thats just 1 outlier example though Ive always thought online trolls talk a lot of shit online (keyboard tough guy) but in real life they are timid turtles who poke their head inside their shell when faced with real face to face confrontation.

That's not much of a rebuttal.

The dude WOULD be an asshole, he just can't.

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OdafeOweh posted...

Or maybe his IRL situation makes him frustrated so he takes it out on people online.

...touch

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Mmmm

We've gone from natural slaves to natural trolls

There is no escaping the wretched condition of humanity

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This is likely not the end of it. Cool that there is such a study.

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dont read gawker media group websites

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https://twitter.com/boralexander1/status/1417122226822856705?s=19

This is the most salient point for me.
Encountering people online who would never even be a blip on your social radar otherwise.
Trolls for the most part are angry social rejects who the real world has largely passed by. This idea that these rude angry trolls are the same online as offline is based on the premise that those two types of interactions form an equal part of their day to day social interactions. They don't.
The basement dweller has nobody in the real world to be rude too. Which is why they're doubley rude as fuck online.

did people actually get paid to do this

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Some people are pretty upset about this lol
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Damar posted...

https://twitter.com/boralexander1/status/1417122226822856705?s=19

This is the most salient point for me.
Encountering people online who would never even be a blip on your social radar otherwise.
Trolls for the most part are angry social rejects who the real world has largely passed by. This idea that these rude angry trolls are the same online as offline is based on the premise that those two types of interactions form an equal part of their day to day social interactions. They don't.
The basement dweller has nobody in the real world to be rude too. Which is why they're doubley rude as fuck online.

I think the basement dweller messes with you in real life but we learn not to react to it.

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CobraGT posted...

I think the basement dweller messes with you in real life but we learn not to react to it.

Do they?
Not in my experience most of them wouldn't say shit if they had a mouthful in a real world setting.
Contrast some of my work colleagues posts on social media to how they behave in the office or better yet having some after work drinks.
Totally different.

refmon posted...

@Doom_Art

:(

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You mean that people who get off on annoying and harassing other people online often enjoy annoying and harassing people in real life too? What a shock.

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I actually wish I was more of a d-bag.

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This isnt a shock at all, yet there have always been those who insist their online personality doesnt reflect their irl one, which makes no sense at all.

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dudes take advantage of their online anonimity to do and say whatever they want and get away with it. nothing new there...

i like to troll or just fuck around on occasion but being a complete asshole to others for no reason is where i draw the line.

No shit.

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The internet is kinda like a Death Note, people that would otherwise be decent always have the potential to overload on being an asshole when given the power of anonymity.

Raikuro posted...

The internet is kinda like a Death Note, people that would otherwise be decent always have the potential to overload on being an asshole when given the power of anonymity.

That is the opposite of what they found.

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Irl I'm very nice and wholesome and I make you cookies.

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BloodMoon7 posted...

Irl I'm very nice and wholesome and I make you cookies.

I try to think of as many ways as possible to kick people between the legs.

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Solid Sonic posted...

I try to think of as many ways as possible to kick people between the legs.

I like to plan out how I would murder everyone I meet. It makes for a good first impression.

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I kinda look at this study as not referring to someone who trolls for humorous purposes but someone who will troll about crass shit like the death of someone's parent. An actual toxic troll

PerseusRad posted...

This isnt a shock at all, yet there have always been those who insist their online personality doesnt reflect their irl one, which makes no sense at all.

Actually it makes perfect sense. Might be because irl and online are two completely different environments, and CE is a more hostile environment than most. So...
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One_Day_Remains posted...

I kinda look at this study as not referring to someone who trolls for humorous purposes but someone who will troll about crass shit like the death of someone's parent. An actual toxic troll

Actually it makes perfect sense. Might be because irl and online are two completely different environments, and CE is a more hostile environment than most. So...

You're doing a lot of coping.

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I don't buy it. I'm a pretty big asshole on here, but I'm cool irl. I guess I'm the exception?
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