Civility and trust in social media

Antoci, Angelo; Bonelli, Laura; Paglieri, Fabio; Reggiani, Tommaso; Sabatini, Fabio

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2019.02.026

Cited by 37 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The “online disinhibition effect” describes “a lowering of behavioral inhibitions in the online environment” (Lapidot-Lefler & Barak, 2012, p. 434) that is not seen offline. Online disinhibition can be both benign and toxic (Suler, 2004): It can inspire acts of generosity and help shy people socialize, but it can also lead to increased incivility in online conversations—as behavior “that can range from aggressive commenting in threads, incensed discussion and rude critiques, to outrageous claims, hate speech, and more severe forms of harassment such as purposeful embarrassment and physical threats” (Antoci et al, 2019, p. 84). One of the most common examples of incivility is trolling, a type of online harassment that involves “posting inflammatory malicious messages in online comment sections to deliberately provoke, disrupt, and upset others” (Craker & March, 2016, p. 79).…”

Section: Systematic Differences Between Online and Offline Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens Versus the Internet: Confronting Digital Challenges With Cognitive Tools

Kozyreva

Lewandowsky

Hertwig

2020

Psychol Sci Public Interest

245

118

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The Internet has evolved into a ubiquitous and indispensable digital environment in which people communicate, seek information, and make decisions. Despite offering various benefits, online environments are also replete with smart, highly adaptive choice architectures designed primarily to maximize commercial interests, capture and sustain users’ attention, monetize user data, and predict and influence future behavior. This online landscape holds multiple negative consequences for society, such as a decline in human autonomy, rising incivility in online conversation, the facilitation of political extremism, and the spread of disinformation. Benevolent choice architects working with regulators may curb the worst excesses of manipulative choice architectures, yet the strategic advantages, resources, and data remain with commercial players. One way to address some of this imbalance is with interventions that empower Internet users to gain some control over their digital environments, in part by boosting their information literacy and their cognitive resistance to manipulation. Our goal is to present a conceptual map of interventions that are based on insights from psychological science. We begin by systematically outlining how online and offline environments differ despite being increasingly inextricable. We then identify four major types of challenges that users encounter in online environments: persuasive and manipulative choice architectures, AI-assisted information architectures, false and misleading information, and distracting environments. Next, we turn to how psychological science can inform interventions to counteract these challenges of the digital world. After distinguishing among three types of behavioral and cognitive interventions—nudges, technocognition, and boosts—we focus on boosts, of which we identify two main groups: (a) those aimed at enhancing people’s agency in their digital environments (e.g., self-nudging, deliberate ignorance) and (b) those aimed at boosting competencies of reasoning and resilience to manipulation (e.g., simple decision aids, inoculation). These cognitive tools are designed to foster the civility of online discourse and protect reason and human autonomy against manipulative choice architectures, attention-grabbing techniques, and the spread of false information.

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Section: Systematic Differences Between Online and Offline Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens Versus the Internet: Confronting Digital Challenges With Cognitive Tools

Kozyreva

Lewandowsky

Hertwig

2020

Psychol Sci Public Interest

245

118

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“…A survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that 44% of Americans have personally experienced online harassment, while 66% have witnessed it being directed at others (Duggan, 2017). Although incivility in online comments can polarize how people perceive issues in the media (Anderson et al, 2014) and can disproportionally affect female politicians and public figures (Rheault, Rayment, & Musulan, 2019), it seems to be perceived as the norm, rather than the exception, for online interaction (Antoci, Bonelli, Paglieri, Reggiani, & Sabatini, 2019). Relatively little is known about the causes of these phenomena.…”

Section: Norms Of Civilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens Versus the Internet: Confronting Digital Challenges With Cognitive Tools

Kozyreva¹,

Lewandowsky²,

Hertwig³

2019

Preprint

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The Internet has evolved into a ubiquitous and indispensable digital environment in which people communicate, seek information, and make decisions. Despite offering various benefits, online environments are also replete with smart, highly adaptive choice architectures designed primarily to maximize commercial interests, capture and sustain users’ attention, monetize user data, and predict and influence future behavior. This online landscape holds multiple negative consequences for society, such as a decline in human autonomy, rising incivility in online conversation, the facilitation of political extremism, and the spread of disinformation. Benevolent choice architects working with regulators may curb the worst excesses of manipulative choice architectures, yet the strategic advantages, resources, and data remain with commercial players. One way to address this imbalance is with interventions that empower Internet users to gain some control over their digital environments, in part by boosting their information literacy and their cognitive resistance to manipulation. Our goal is to present a conceptual map of interventions that are based on insights from psychological science. We begin by systematically outlining how online and offline environments differ despite being increasingly inextricable. We then identify four major types of challenges that users encounter in online environments: persuasive and manipulative choice architectures, AI-assisted information architectures, false and misleading information, and distractive environments. Next, we turn to how psychological science can inform interventions to counteract these challenges of the digital world. After distinguishing between three types of behavioral and cognitive interventions—nudges, technocognition, and boosts—we focus in on boosts, of which we identify two main groups: (1) those aimed at enhancing people’s agency in their digital environments (e.g., self-nudging, deliberate ignorance) and (2) those aimed at boosting competences of reasoning and resilience to manipulation (e.g., simple decision aids, inoculation). These cognitive tools are designed to foster the civility of online discourse and protect reason and human autonomy against manipulative choice architectures, attention-grabbing techniques, and the spread of false information.

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“…Students can also engage in extra-curricular activities via social media in areas of interest that border around improving their knowledge and skills. The attendant literature is supportive of the view that social media has enabled the building of a "community of learners" which not only improves teacher-student interactions but also creates other opportunities that are relevant for users' livelihood and sustainable development (Carter & Evans, 2008;Nicholson, Nugroho & Rangaswamy, 2016;Antoci, Bonelli, Paglieri, Reggiani & Sabatini, 2019).…”

Section: Benefits Of Social Media For Human Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…where unique slope parameters are modelled for each th specific quantile. This formulation The above estimation techniques substantially depart from the extant literature on social media which has mainly been based on qualitative and exploratory research (Wolak et al, 2008;Ameripour et al, 2010;Nicholson et al, 2016;Antoci et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2018 ;Zell et al, 2018). Hence, a quantitative dimension or focus is relevant in order to put some empirical quantitative structure to the nexus between social media and human development.…”

Section: Quantile Regressionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The attendant literature supports the view that social media improves digital literacy and income generation, which are constituents of the inclusive human development indicator used in this study. The positive human development externalities can also be indirectly traceable to other documented benefits of social media which include: (i) giving voice to the people through a platform of direct participation (Parkyn, 2017); (ii) improving civility and trust (Antoci et al, 2019);…”

Section: Comparative Relevance With Fundamental Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social media and inclusive human development in Africa

Asongu

Odhiambo

2020

Information Development

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This study investigates the relationship between social media and inclusive human development in 49 African countries for the year 2012. Social media is measured with Facebook penetration whereas inclusive human development is proxied by the inequality- adjusted human development index. The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares, Tobit and Quantile regressions. Ordinary Least Squares provided baseline results, Tobit regressions account for the limited range in the outcome variable while Quantile regressions are engaged to control for initial levels of inequality-adjusted human development. From Ordinary Least Squares and Tobit results, Facebook penetration is positively associated with inclusive human development. Quantile regressions confirm this positive nexus and further establish that the positive association is slightly higher in magnitude in the above-median sub-sample. From a comparative assessment, it is apparent that with the exception of the resource-wealth sub-samples, higher levels of Facebook penetration are associated with comparatively higher levels of inclusive human development. Accordingly, the positive association between Facebook penetration and inclusive human development is: (i) a positive function of income levels and (ii) more apparent in Middle East and North African countries (compared to Sub-Saharan African countries), English common law countries (compared to their French civil law counterparts), and coastal countries (in relation to landlocked countries).

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Civility and trust in social media

Cited by 37 publications

References 70 publications

Citizens Versus the Internet: Confronting Digital Challenges With Cognitive Tools

Citizens Versus the Internet: Confronting Digital Challenges With Cognitive Tools

Citizens Versus the Internet: Confronting Digital Challenges With Cognitive Tools

Social media and inclusive human development in Africa

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