The Psychology of Online Political Hostility
&gt; [...]hostile political discussions are the result of status-driven individuals who are drawn to politics and are equally hostile both online and offline. Finally, we offer initial evidence that online discussions feel more hostile, in part, because the behavior of such individuals is more visible than offline.<p>Not only more visible, but more out of context. The identical political conversation between someone and their parent, for example, in the context of a loving family relationship, will be remembered differently than that discussion with a faceless online swarm. You&#x27;re forced to think of your parent as a person, whereas anonymous opposition is easy to dehumanize. And if you&#x27;re a middle-class PMC, you can just fall into thinking of the internet as a mob of subhuman lumpen morons out for bloodsport and seeing every interaction in which people vehemently disagree with you as further evidence of that.<p>----<p>Edit: The fixation on online culture as the source of strife from people annoys me. I know plenty of mean, aggressive people in real life. I know very few on the internet - because <i>I know fewer people online than I do in real life.</i> <i>Seeing</i> people you don&#x27;t know be mean online and thinking that online life is meaner is like watching the local news and concluding that everyone but you, your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers are murderers.