Viral outrage : victims and villains of our contemporary moral discourse
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Viral outrage--the piling up of online condemnation in response to offensive remarks--is a common expression of moral judgment in the digital age. Whereas moral outrage has traditionally served a valuable social function, expressing group values and inhibiting deviant behavior, the exponential dynamics of Internet postings make this expression of legitimate individual outrage appear excessive and unjust. Across nine studies (N=5,377), we address two questions: 1) How do outside observers evaluate individuals who contribute to viral outrage? 2) Is viral outrage effective in convincing observers that an offender is blameworthy? In Studies 1-5, participants saw racist, sexist, or unpatriotic posts with accompanying expressions of outrage, and formed impressions of a single commenter. We demonstrate that the same individual outrage that would be praised in isolation was more likely to be viewed as bullying when echoed online by a multitude of similar responses, as viral outrage elicited greater sympathy towards the initial offender. In Studies 6-9, participants were again presented with offensive posts and accompanying expressions of outrage, but in contrast to the previous studies, evaluated the offender rather than individual commenters. As more people expressed outrage, observers believed it was more normative to express condemnation, but also felt that the outrage was excessive, thus inspiring both more outrage and more sympathy towards the offender. Greater outrage increased condemnation towards the offender; greater sympathy decreased it. These two processes operated in opposition and suppressed one another. The exponential nature of online moral outrage may significantly alter how outrage is elicited, expressed, and perceived, raising the question of how best to respond to injustice in the digital age.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Sawaoka, Takuya |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Monin, Benoît, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Monin, Benoît, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Thesis advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Degree committee member | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Degree committee member | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Takuya Sawaoka. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Takuya Sawaoka
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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