When the Psyche and the 'Net Collide: Sources of and potential methods for preventing Bad Behavior Online

Abstract

With the emergence of social networking has come a range of harmful and malicious behaviors online, including disinformation, cyberbullying, and sextortion among others. These behaviors arise from a number of causes, including the incentives of the providers of the social networking platforms and the technical affordances of those platforms, which in some cases facilitate these abuses. This report sheds light on the causes and possible mitigations of these behaviors through the lens of behavioral psychology. Results from psychological research suggest that these abuses play on specific human attributes. To design effective mitigations, it is crucial that these human attributes be understood. This report draws on literature from psychology research to outline the important human behavioral attributes, relates these to some of the important affordances found in social networking applications, and suggests possible approaches that can damp the bad behavior we observe online.