This is your brain online, part 1: Morality and Punishment (FF #118)

Welcome back to Facty Friday from the DRG Bureau's Evidence and Learning team! This edition of Facty Friday highlights psychology research into how humans evolved over time in small groups and how this affects our online behavior.  This is relevant to how we think about cooperation, problem-solving and human dignity, which are core concerns for anyone working on democracy, human rights, and governance. 

Extreme content online desensitizes us and makes it easier to shame others 

The authors of this article argue that behaviors we evolved to survive in small groups, such as sensitivity to violations of norms of cooperation, are ill-suited for today’s online world. An overabundance of emotional and moral content, often coming from the most extreme people, artificially inflates people’s perception of norm violation, and drains people of their energy to be empathetic. This can reduce empathy for others in online interactions and increase blame and punishment. In addition, the sheer number of people online can make punishing wrongdoings easier and more intense. Online, punishment costs each person very little but is collectively overwhelming for the target, and may focus more on retribution than rehabilitation. This research helps us understand how the online world is increasing polarization and decreasing empathy and tolerance of difference, both of which undermine democracy.

Social learning amplifies moral outrage online

Moral and emotional online content often seeks to motivate people to clicks, likes, and other engagement by promoting outrage. Researchers conducted two observational and two experimental studies on 12.7 million posts on Twitter (now X) to understand how social and normative forces influence people to express outrage online. They found that two types of social learning affect peoples’ outrage expressions: (1) Getting positive reactions to previous days’ expressions of outrage was connected with people expressing more moral outrage the next day, and (2) In online spaces where social norms in favor of expressing outrage are more common, such as extreme information and communication bubbles, people are less sensitive to specific previous reactions to their outrage, but express outrage more consistently. This research highlights how the structure of public discussion spaces and the social norms surrounding them are key to promoting tolerant engagement rather than moral outrage.

One parting thought to consider from Dr. E. O. Wilson, an American sociobiologist, on humans and technology:

“The real problem of humanity is the following:  

We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and a God-like technology”.

Read more about Homosapiens in the Age of Technology. And for more on the role of social norms in our work promoting democracy, check out the DRG Social and Behavior Change Primer!

Got a study we should share for Facty Friday? Email drg.el@usaid.gov!