How Do Silent Trolls Become Overt Trolls? Fear of Punishment and Online Disinhibition Moderate the Trolling Path

IF 5.5 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2025-02-24 DOI:10.1177/20563051251320437

Daniel Montez, Dam Hee Kim

{"title":"How Do Silent Trolls Become Overt Trolls? Fear of Punishment and Online Disinhibition Moderate the Trolling Path","authors":"Daniel Montez, Dam Hee Kim","doi":"10.1177/20563051251320437","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Digital media allow users the ability to engage in and be exposed to trolling. Although many people may enjoy the occasional opportunity to witness others being trolled, a relative minority directly troll others, those whom we can label overt trolls. Nevertheless, features afforded on social media and online communities (e.g., likes, upvotes) make it accessible for people to positively react to and support trolling, becoming supportive trolls, a potential steppingstone into overt trolling. In the theoretical contexts of social cognitive theory and the bystander effect, we advance a model in which enjoyment of observing trolling prompts supportive trolling, which could then lead to overt trolling. Analyses of data from an online survey conducted in the United States ( N = 604) show the positive link between enjoyment of observing trolling and supportive trolling is stronger among individuals with higher fear of punishment, while the subsequent link between supportive and overt trolling is stronger among those with higher online disinhibition. Our findings hold implications in understanding the effects of trolling on social media audiences and how trolling can be performed in nuanced ways.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Media + Society","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251320437","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Digital media allow users the ability to engage in and be exposed to trolling. Although many people may enjoy the occasional opportunity to witness others being trolled, a relative minority directly troll others, those whom we can label overt trolls. Nevertheless, features afforded on social media and online communities (e.g., likes, upvotes) make it accessible for people to positively react to and support trolling, becoming supportive trolls, a potential steppingstone into overt trolling. In the theoretical contexts of social cognitive theory and the bystander effect, we advance a model in which enjoyment of observing trolling prompts supportive trolling, which could then lead to overt trolling. Analyses of data from an online survey conducted in the United States ( N = 604) show the positive link between enjoyment of observing trolling and supportive trolling is stronger among individuals with higher fear of punishment, while the subsequent link between supportive and overt trolling is stronger among those with higher online disinhibition. Our findings hold implications in understanding the effects of trolling on social media audiences and how trolling can be performed in nuanced ways.

查看原文本刊更多论文

沉默的喷子如何变成公开的喷子？对惩罚的恐惧和网络去抑制调节了网络喷子的路径

数字媒体允许用户参与和暴露于网络喷子。虽然很多人可能喜欢偶尔有机会看到别人被喷子，但相对少数人直接喷子别人，那些我们可以标记为公开喷子的人。然而，社交媒体和在线社区提供的功能（例如，点赞、点赞）使人们可以积极回应和支持喷子，成为支持性喷子，这是一个潜在的进入公开喷子的垫脚石。在社会认知理论和旁观者效应的理论背景下，我们提出了一个模型，在这个模型中，观察网络挑衅的乐趣会引发支持性的网络挑衅，而支持性的网络挑衅可能会导致公开的网络挑衅。对美国进行的一项在线调查数据的分析（N = 604）表明，在对惩罚的恐惧程度较高的个体中，观看网络挑衅的乐趣和支持性网络挑衅之间的正相关关系更强，而在网络去抑制程度较高的个体中，支持性网络挑衅和公开的网络挑衅之间的后续联系更强。我们的研究结果有助于理解网络挑衅对社交媒体受众的影响，以及如何以微妙的方式进行网络挑衅。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Social Media + Society COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

9.20

自引率

3.80%

发文量

111

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Media + Society is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that focuses on the socio-cultural, political, psychological, historical, economic, legal and policy dimensions of social media in societies past, contemporary and future. We publish interdisciplinary work that draws from the social sciences, humanities and computational social sciences, reaches out to the arts and natural sciences, and we endorse mixed methods and methodologies. The journal is open to a diversity of theoretic paradigms and methodologies. The editorial vision of Social Media + Society draws inspiration from research on social media to outline a field of study poised to reflexively grow as social technologies evolve. We foster the open access of sharing of research on the social properties of media, as they manifest themselves through the uses people make of networked platforms past and present, digital and non. The journal presents a collaborative, open, and shared space, dedicated exclusively to the study of social media and their implications for societies. It facilitates state-of-the-art research on cutting-edge trends and allows scholars to focus and track trends specific to this field of study.