Are we more aggressive online? Are our political debates more hostile on the internet? This is what this study from a Danish university tries to determine.
The study seeks to confirm the widespread hypothesis of evolutionary mismatch, which assumes that humans struggle to adapt their face-to-face interactions to new, more impersonal forms of online exchange. The use of a nickname and the barrier of the screen would make us more inclined to develop aggressive behaviors. If this theory seems to hold, the conclusions of the study are quite different.
The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis
The hypothesis assumes that individuals online can afford more radical behaviors than face-to-face. The lack of intersubjectivity diminishes their ability to contain their emotions. It is also easier to adopt hostile behavior behind a screen, where individuals feel protected by the physical distance with their interlocutors. Anonymity also allows connected individuals to feel freer to let their emotions explode.
The study is particularly interested in the hostility linked to political debates on the Internet. Politics is one of the most toxic topics discussed online and disturbed by malicious individuals. The tone rises very easily and the debates quickly become personal.
The researchers asked a sample of Danes and Americans about their perceptions of the hostility of online political debates and about their own online behavior. The results seem to refute their first hypothesis.
Once a troll, always a troll
The results of the study seem to show that no, we are not more aggressive online, or at least not all of us are. Most people who behave peacefully offline also remain calm in their online interactions. But a particular category of individuals seems to be unleashed on social networks.
Trolls are actually particular personalities who seek status and social recognition on the internet, as they already do in real life. Their aggressive and verbally violent behaviors are therefore not mood swings, but a strategic means of attracting attention.
Indeed, these extreme behaviors are much more visible online, in the eyes of an immense number of individuals, than in a face-to-face conversation. Trolls therefore have every interest in using the Internet as a springboard for notoriety, in order to create chain reactions to their extreme behavior. Trolls are therefore, after all, aggressive personalities who are offered a megaphone, according to the study.
A “simple” way to combat these behaviors is therefore to reduce the visibility of trolls and their extreme comments. A sweet utopia while social networks have every interest in highlighting these behaviors that generate general excitement and interactions. In addition, the study points out that less hostile people, who could counteract hate speech, are less interested in the idea of intervening in debates related to politics, thus leaving more room for trolls. The snake biting its tail?
Source : Gizmodo
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