Online political hostility reflects the behavior of individuals predisposed to be hostile in all (also offline) contexts; but since this is more likely to be witnessed on public online platforms, these are perceived to induce more hostility

Bor, Alexander, and Michael Bang Petersen. 2019. “The Psychology of Online Political Hostility: A Comprehensive, Cross-national Test of the Mismatch Hypothesis.” PsyArXiv. December 19. doi:10.31234/osf.io/hwb83

Abstract: Why are online discussions about politics experienced as more hostile than offline discussions? A popular answer builds on the argument that human psychology is tailored for face-to-face interaction and, accordingly, people’s behavior changes for the worse in impersonal online discussions. We provide the first theoretical formalization and empirical test of this explanation: the mismatch hypothesis. We argue that mismatches between human psychology and novel features of online communication environments could (a) change people’s behavior, (b) bias their perceptions and (c) create adverse selection effects. We leverage five cross-national representative surveys and online behavioral experiments (total N=7510) to test the mismatch hypothesis but find little to no evidence. Rather, we find that online political hostility reflects the behavior of individuals predisposed to be hostile in all (including offline) contexts. Yet, because their behavior is more likely to be witnessed on public online platforms, these are perceived to induce more hostility.