Alienation

Joseph Reagle

Why do people misbehave online?

We will discuss:

  1. Popular background & theories
  2. Communications & psychology theory
  3. The trollplex & stochastic terrorism

but first…

Which super-power would you choose?

  1. invisibility
  2. flight

I think Umbrella Academy’s Allison suggestion-power (“I heard a rumor”) is the most corrupting.

Fail / Lolz

Godwin’s law

Anonymity

Have you been in a “flame war”?

  • Walker argues flame wars in an online lesbian fan community an example of “deliberative democracy in action”
  • Lee views it as harmless ritual
  • Wang enthuses that it “educates the ignorant,” “tames the uncouth,” enforces “netiquette”, “promotes good writing and effective communication,” and “scares away commercial advertising.” (Jane 2012, p. 9)
  • Josh: Linus flame war

Anonymous

Doxing & Swatting?

doxing
posting a target’s “docs,” including phone numbers, addresses, and other information that can be used to harass.
swatting
calling in a false report of a gunman so that police/SWAT arrive with gun’s primed

Troll vs Hater?

Trolls are provocateurs: they provoke others, especially newcomers, with outlandish statements that may be insincere. They are often in it for the “lolz” or laughs.

Haters are hostile: they attack others, often by seizing upon something likely to cause distress (e.g., gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and appearance). They intend to harm and belittle others.

Other terms new to you?

Or, what’s the latest in online pop culture?

Why do people behave so poorly?

Kathy Sierra

author, blogger, speaker
The great Kathy Sierra
  1. supported pruning comments
  2. a woman

“I’m at home, with the doors locked, terrified.”

Kathy Sierra's Canceled Talk -- Bummer.

It began just over four weeks ago, when something shifted. It started with death threat blog comments left here (which some of you may have seen before I deleted them) including: “Comment: fuck off you boring slut… [sexualized threat of murder]” (Sierra 2007).

Why?

Keeping it simple

  1. “Good” people acting badly
  2. “Bad” people acting out

1. Good people acting badly

Kathy Sierra is a hopeless dipshit. (Locke 2007)

or in 1937…

GOLUM

or 375 BCE…

Gyges

Now

CMC/Media effect theories

  • media richness/naturalness: how well a medium can communicate equivocal or ambiguous information
  • social presence/cues filtered-out: total amount of social information exchanged
  • social information processing: not total amount, but rate of exchange

Behaviorial theories

disinhibition
lose inhibitions, e.g., drinking
deindividuation
lose individuality & inhibitions in a crowd
depersonalization
reorient to more salient norms
moral disengagement
rationalize

Disinhibition

Deindividuation

lost individuality & inhibitions in social context

  • Trick-or-treaters (Diener et al. 1976)
  • Hooded and zapping (Zimbardo 1969, “The human choice”)

Depersonalization

reorient to more salient norms

(Started as Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) (ReicherSpearsPostmes 1995))

e.g., Zimbardo on situations

Internet situation??

If the situation creates evil, how does this apply to the Internet and what can we do?

Moral disengagement

Schoolchildren reveal a relationships between moral disengagement and aggressive behavior.

Boys are found to partake in this behavior more so than girls. (Bandura et al. 1996)

What are its attributes?

Disengagement tactics

reconstruct conduct
moral justification (“for greater good”), euphemistic language (“rough housing”), advantageous comparison (“Bob was meaner than me”)
displace responsibility
group dynamics (“I only called them names”); factors (“it was a bad situation”)
misrepresent injurious consequences
minimizing harms (“they’ll be okay, it toughened them up”) and selective inattention (“I didn’t know that”)
dehumanize
people are not feeling persons (“who cares about them?”) and deserve harm (“they deserve it”) (Bandura et al. 1996)

Mnemonic? bullies see ReD and get MaD

2. Bad people acting out

Kathy hollers like a stuck pig as she wonders why the trolls escalated to magnitudes which she could no longer control. The answer is obvious: she fought the LOL. The LOL won – Andrew Auernheimer (weev 2007)

(also responsible for Northeastern printer hack)

The Dark Tetrad

  • two online studies (total N = 1215)
    • compare commenting/trolling to narcissism, sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism
  • 5.6% said they enjoyed trolling

Of all personality measures, sadism showed the most robust associations with trolling and, importantly, the relationship was specific to trolling behavior. (BuckelsTrapnellPaulhus 2014)

Luka Rocco Magnotta

The trollplex

The trollplex

Our Troll Family 14/365

an attack by a spectrum of people exhibiting varied behavior, but who share a target, culture, and venues. (Reagle 2015)

Stochastic terrorism

the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. (G2geek 2011)

Sierra’s trollplex

  • MeanKids: “criticism, pointed and insulting satire”
  • trolls: making mischief with no other instrumental purpose
  • haters: hurtful hostility
  • kibitzers: peanut gallery

Bully battles on GoodReads

…

  1. reciprocal accusations
  2. partisanship
  3. right-based rhetoric
  4. doxing
  5. lists
  • Eve R.

Don’t say DFTT

DoNotFeedTroll

The barrel

What do do?

Platforms

How do each of these platforms address hate speech or harassment?

  • X/Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

….

  • Is it enough? Do you see more/less hateful content?
  • How to balance moderation and free speech?
  • Elliot: “FREEZE PEACH”
  • Eve K: banning Andrew Tate
  • Tammi: the meaning of a blue check mark

YouTube’s “second chance”

Conclusion

Wrap up

Let’s mindmap an answer to the question, why do people act so rotten online?

Review

Review quiz

  • What’s the difference between a troll and a hater?
  • What’s the difference between deindividuation and depersonalization?
  • Define and exemplify two of Bandura’s moral disengagements.
    • Mnemonic? bullies see ReD and get MaD
  • How does Reagle’s adaptation of Zimbardo’ barrel explain rotten behavior online?