At the core of cyberaggression: A group‐based explanation

Abstract

In this study, prototypicality of the aggressor was tested as a group-level factor predicting social media users' active participation in cyberaggression. Participants were exposed to a fictitious conversation, in which either a prototypical versus nonprototypical user posted an aggressive comment as a reply to a provocative comment. In line with self-categorization theory, we hypothesized that bystander participants would post an aggressive comment and rate the aggression as acceptable to a greater extent in the prototypical than in the non-prototypical condition. Furthermore, we predicted that perceived normativity of aggression would mediate the effect of prototypicality. Results supported these predictions and showed that prototypical members affect the extent to which collective aggressive behaviors in online interactions are approved and enacted.These findings highlight the importance of group-level factors in the study of cyberaggression and provide important information for understanding the psychological underpinnings of collective forms of online aggression.

Once upon a time…: Using fairy tales as a form of vicarious contact to prevent stigma‐based bullying among schoolchildren

“…A further relevant finding is that vicarious contact changed peer norms, fostering the idea that ingroup members would perceive stigma-based bullying as wrong. However, in contrast with growing research considering bullying in terms of group processes (Jones et al, 2017;Trifiletti et al, 2020), peer norms were not associated with any of the dependent variables. There may be different explanations for this finding.…”

The bittersweet smell of success: Malicious online responses to others achievements

“…Although the system and effects of social sharing of emotions was studied in regular media, less is known about social sharing of emotions in the electronic environments (Kimmel and Kitchen, 2014). This is surprising, since communication in electronic social networks, in the form of talkbacks, blog communities, comments and social media sites, abounds with displays of emotions (Tapanainen et al, 2021;Trifiletti et al, 2022). However, all these may characterize special kinds of people, which Paavola et al (2016) refer to as "hate holders, " that is, individuals who frequently post deliberately malicious online content (Paavola et al, 2016, p. 104) 2019) calls "malicious users, " tend to be dysphoric, tend to focus on negative aspects even in the best of times, and viewing everything through 'dark colored glasses. '…”

“…Evidently, any negative sentiment has the potential to become an online firestorm, defined as “the sudden discharge of large quantities of messages containing negative WOM against a person, company, or group in social media network” ( Pfeffer et al, 2014 , p. 118). For the commercial entity under slander, such electronic offense can become a possible threat to reputation, especially when magnified by traditional media ( Herhausen et al, 2019 ; Trifiletti et al, 2022 ). Thus, finding ways to detect and respond to negative eWOM (NeWOM) creates a critical social and managerial priority ( Talwar et al, 2019 ).…”