Are mindful people less involved in online trolling? A moderated mediation model of perceived social media fatigue and moral disengagement

Abstract

Online trolling is aggressive online behavior that has severe consequences for the mental health of internet users. Online trolling can be influenced by personal factors and psychological states. Based on the General Aggression Model, moral disengagement was examined as a moderator of the direct and indirect relations between mindfulness and online trolling via social media fatigue. A total of 1123 college students completed questionnaires regarding their experience with online trolling, mindfulness, social media fatigue, and moral disengagement. The results showed that individuals with high mindfulness were less likely to troll others online, which was mediated by their social media fatigue. Furthermore, moral disengagement moderated the indirect relationship between mindfulness and online trolling. Specifically, the relationship between mindfulness and social media fatigue became weaker for individuals with high moral disengagement. The relationship between social media fatigue and online trolling became strengthened for individuals with high moral disengagement. These findings elucidate the role of personal factors and the present internal state in online trolling and suggest that comprehensive intervention programs may be promising for reducing online trolling.

How technological and natural consumption experiences impact consumer well‐being: The role of consumer mindfulness and fatigue

“…However, mindfulness can mitigate the effects of fatigue related to new technologies. By increasing individuals’ self‐awareness, mindfulness provides a psychological armor for better coping with and managing possible harmful situations associated with new technologies, such as aggressive online behavior, misinformation sharing, technostress, and social media anxiety (Charoensukmongkol, 2016; Islam et al, 2020; Wu, Li, et al, 2022).…”

“…Consumers with high fatigue and low mindfulness may be less able to cope with the physical and/or mental tiredness associated with technological and natural experiences. Because fatigue is more strongly associated with information technologies than natural settings (e.g., Wu, Li, et al, 2022; Wu, Zhou, et al, 2022), the hypothesized effect will be stronger for technological experiences compared to nontechnological ones. When consumers present high fatigue as well as high mindfulness, no effects are expected as mindfulness is a protective factor, helping consumers cope in such situations.…”

Psychometric Properties of the Moral Disengagement through Technologies Questionnaire (MDTech-Q) in a Sample of Chilean University Students

“…MD is linked to different negative behaviors such as online hate speech [ 20 ], racist behavior on news websites [ 21 ], hostile emotions [ 22 ], sexist memes online [ 23 ], cyberbullying [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], and increased cyberaggression and cybervictimization [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. In addition, it has a moderating role between social network fatigue and online trolling [ 31 ]. Specifically, Lee & Jang [ 1 ] report that some of the predictors of cyberaggression in university students are anonymity, being male, a lower level of moral justification, a higher level of advantageous comparison, distortion of consequences, and attribution of blame.…”

“…However, Bandura [ 48 ] posits that virtual spaces favor disconnection from moral self-sanctions due to the difficulties in supervising and regulating people’s behavior on the Internet. It is noteworthy that interactions through electronic devices have characteristics that could favor a display of negative behaviors such as the scarcity and difficulties of recognizing and interpreting socio-emotional signals, anonymity, distance in time and space, among others [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. Wang & Ngai [ 56 ] refer to anonymity and asynchronicity as being related to the perpetration of cyberbullying through MD.…”