Chapter 5 – The dark Side of the Internet

Chapter Summary

Trolling

Occurs when there is a deliberate attempt to provoke a reaction.

Anonymity and power are explanations for why people can troll online.

Some forms of trolling do not involve explicit negative provocations.

Trolls score high in Dark Personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Sadism, and Psychopathy.

There are three different types of messages that trolls use, each having a different purpose.

Proactive group norms that act before trolling happens is a possible prevention. 

Flaming

Can be seen as a verbal duel but the lack of cues can lead to its intensity.

Flaming can be normative behaviour of some groups.

O’Sullivan and Flanagin (2013) consider flaming to be hostile and aggressive interactions via Computer-Mediated Communication.

Flaming can look different to trolling.

Online Prejudice/ Stereotyping

Prejudice is a negative attitude towards a social group and its members (Allport, 1954).

An attitude has three parts: conative, cognitive, and affective.

Biases that we are unaware of or that we do not admit to having are called implicit biases and these can occur online and offline. An example of this is micro-aggressions.

A test which allegedly measures these biases is the Implicit Association Test but its validity has been recently challenged.

Online prejudice has been found using avatars of different ethnic groups.

Through Social Categorisation Theory we divide people both offline and online into those like me (in-group) and those not like me (out-group).

We have a favourable bias towards members of our in-group and a negative bias towards any member of an out-group.

The effects of this negative bias online (exclusion) are just as painful as it is offline.

There are many strategies to reduce online prejudice – more contact with members of an out-group and hearing positive things about individual members of an out-group are some of them.

There are some personality/cognitive factors which make it more likely for a person to use stereotyping online. An individual’s need for cognition and personal need for structure are two such factors.

  • Chapter 5 – Audio and Video links

    This TED Talk gives a chilling insight into how technology can enable people’s photographs to be linked to their online data. There is no such thing as anonymity in this dark new world. Alessandro Acquisti talks about how online data mining can be used by marketing companies and businesses to manipulate a person into buying products:

    This BBC interview with Zoe Quinn documents her experiences of being one of the main victims of the #Gamergate scandal. Zoe details her life now since she was targeted in a collective campaign of misogynistic harassment online:

    The Shona Project is a multi-award-winning non profit whose aim is to educate, empower, and inspire today’s Irish girls to become tomorrow’s strong, confident, and curious young women. They have produced a YouTube video interview with Jackie Cox about the origins of Coco’s Law. Coco’s Law was drafted in Ireland so that young people are less likely to experience the detrimental impact negative behaviour online can have on their lives. It is a heartbreaking story about the events that led to a young girl’s suicide, which then resulted in the Irish State proactively legislating against the sharing of intimate images online without consent. There is a trigger warning labelled with self-harm and suicide associated with this video. Permission to use this video has been granted by the Shona Project and Jackie Cox:

    ExtremeCalls hosted by Dr Stephane Baele (University of Exeter) interviews Dr. Debbie Ging about her work mapping out the ‘Manosphere’ and the role of incels online. ExtremeCalls specialises in documenting extremist behaviour and propaganda and interviews experts in their fields:

  • Chapter 5 – Useful Websites

    The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., black people, gay people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad) or stereotypes (e.g., athletic, clumsy). The main idea is that making a response is easier when closely related items share the same response key. The IAT purports to measure attitudes that you may be unaware of or unwilling to admit to.

    TackleBullying is Ireland’s national anti-bullying website updated regularly. It contains a variety of information in the context of bullying and cyberbullying prevention.

    Psychgeist is a YouTube resource set up by Dr. Rachel Kowert to communicate concepts, issues, and video game research trends in an accessible way. There are short videos explaining negative behaviour and toxic cultures.

    Take This is an organisation that specialises in the mental health and wellbeing of players and gamers.

    Hate crimes in Ireland can be reported to the Gardaí if you or someone you know has been targeted by it.

  • Chapter 5 – Further Reading

    The following articles provide suggestions on how to prevent negative behaviour across different digital contexts:

    • Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. W. (2020). Digital dating abuse among a national sample of U.S. youth. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36, 11088–11108. 10.1177/0886260519897344
    • Laffan, D. A., Stenson, A., and Flood, C. (2022). The role of cyberbullying victimization in the relationship between adult BTS fans’ psychological sense of community and wellbeing. Journal of Community Psychology, 1–16. Advanced Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22924.
    • Salawu, S., Lumsden, J. & He, Y. (2022). A mobile-based system for preventing online abuse and cyberbullying. International Journal of Bullying Prevention, 4, 66–88 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-021-00115-5.

    Dr. Debbie Ging and Dr. Eugenia Siapera co-edited a book about the intersection of online hate and gender. It focuses on misogyny and anti-feminism in the digital environment:

    Sexual harassment in online video game environments was explored in relation to the personality and context considerations:

    • Tang, W. Y., Reer, F., and Quandt, T. (2020). Investigating sexual harassment in online video games:        How personality and context factors are related to toxic sexual behaviors against fellow players. Aggressive Behavior, 46(1), 127–135. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21873.

    Dr. Rachel Kowert catalogued a variety of negative behaviour that can occur in digital gaming spaces under the umbrella of Dark Participation:

  • Chapter 5 – Essay questions

    1. Explain both the personality and motivations of Trolls.
    2. Critique the role of anonymity in the context of negative behaviour online.
    3. Examine the ways sexual harassment can occur online and suggest possible ways sexual harassment online can be prevented.
    4. Evaluate the research on “gamer identity” focusing on the role of gamer identity in toxic gaming cultures.

Chapter 5 – Quiz

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