The Spread of Online Aggression: Factors and Mechanisms

Abstract

The article explores factors and mechanisms of online aggression in the digital society. The spread of aggressive behavior in the online environment has serious consequences for the psychological and social well-being of users. The article discusses the main factors that contribute to the spread of online aggression, such as anonymity, social distance, negative interactions and frustration. Moreover, it also describes online aggression spreading machine, including repetition, social contagion and algorithmic content filtering. Understanding these factors and mechanisms is important for developing strategies and measures to counter online aggression and create a safe and healthy online environment, which are discussed in the conclusion of the article. The empirical material of the article is the results of a study conducted by surveying students of professional educational organizations (N = 16169 people).