This assignment started our by reading 6 articles surrounding the topics of interpersonal aggression, trolling, and cyberbullying. Following this, we got to choose between listening to an NPR episode of someone confronting their cyberbully, or reading an article about a woman who confronted her cyberbully. After this, we had to create a discussion board post, describing what social psychological principles underlie the cyberbully’s aggression, what personality traits might underlie the cyberbully’s aggression, was the aggression hostile or instrumental, and is the type of bullying and trolling we see on the Internet a new phenomenon.
The first article is a social psychology chapter describing interpersonal aggression, including the types of aggression, what triggers it, norms about it, and what it means. The second article talks about how internet trolls are more likely to show signs of sadism, psychopathy and machiavellianism. The third was just a tweet in response to the second article.
The fourth article was a research abstract that explained that trolling was associated with psychopathy, and viewing oneself as superior to others was associated with narcissism. The fifth article described how even Albert Einstein had to deal with trolls. The sixth article is how Kierkegaard described the psychology behind cyberbullying and trolling.
I chose to read the article about a woman, Francie, confronting her cyberbully. The cyberbully hacked her email and would leave reminders for Francie to kill herself. Rather than getting a new email and letting the cyberbully know she won, Francie endured this for a long time. 10 years later, through Facebook messenger, Francie confronted her cyberbully, who apologized, but did not remember the severity of the bullying.
I started my discussion board post by explaining some social psychological principles underlie Francie Diep’s cyberbully’s aggression. It could start with the role of negative feelings. For example, maybe the cyberbully maybe was irritated that Francie was doing fine without her, or that Francie maybe made her look less cool while they were friends. So, these negative feelings could be a reason for the bullying.
Additionally, group norms also promote aggressive behavior, rather than restraining it. This could have been at play, as the cyberbully maybe saw these norms and determined that aggression was not such a bad thing.
Maybe she also had emotional arousal based on previous threats or trauma in her life, which led her to lash out and bully Francie. Any of these social psychology principles could have been in play in underlying cyberbullying aggression.
I went on to describe personality traits that could underly the cyberbullying aggression, starting with sadism. This means to take pleasure in other people’s pain and was explained in the Gross article. If the cyberbully took pleasure in the pain of Francie, this could be a trait that contributed to the bullying. Similarly, the tweet brings up the trait of liking to annoy others. The cyberbully certainly could have possessed this trait.
She could express a certain level of psychopathy, which is positively associated with trolling behaviors, or narcissism, which is associated with seeing oneself as better than others. Either of these could lead her to want to mess with Francie, and were discussed in the Lopes and Yiu abstract.
According to the social psychology textbook, the cyberbully’s aggression was instrumental or weighing the costs versus the rewards. For example, her cyberbully decided she would be rewarded in the sense that her cyberbullying would make Francie, her ex-friend, sad, stressed, or anxious. She probably saw no costs, because Francie’s email account was easy to hack, and she never thought that the suicide notes would actually lead Francie to kill herself.
It was not hostile aggression, because it was not in response to something that Francie did. Hostile aggression revolves around striking back at someone who provoked you.
This type of bullying is not a new phenomenon. Einstein’s letter to Curie in 1911 basically talks about the hate associated with her, and how she should avoid listening to it. Kierkegaard also discussed how people’s envy led them to treat him poorly, which resembles bullying. These examples showcase that this type of bullying has been around for hundreds of years, much before the creation of the internet.
Reflecting on this assignment, it was very interesting to learn about cyberbullying. I have heard a lot about campaigns to combat cyberbullying, and how it is such a bad thing to go through. However, before this, I did not really understand what traits could lead someone to take part in it, or what type of aggression that it is. So, this was informative for me in that sense, so I know what type of person could be likely to engage in these behaviors.
Additionally, it was nice to have a choice between listening to an episode or reading an article. Some people learn in certain ways better than others, and for me, I like reading it rather than listening to it. The material is right in front of my eyes, so I can go back and forth very easily.
Also, it was very cool to hear from a victim of cyberbullying, rather than just a researcher or author. Francie’s story was impactful because it gave a lens of what she went through, rather than just giving an outside story. It provided more of an emotional connection, so I could empathize with her more.
Finally, it was super interesting to hear about Einstein and Kierkegaard’s examples of how trolling existed much before the internet. Generally, when I think of trolling, I associate it with online behavior, but it was interesting to hear how it was prevalent so much earlier in history!
Nicky's Blog 