According to Suler (2004), people tend to abandon their social inhibitions and to devalue their moral obligations in cyberspace, which causes people to adopt behaviors that they normally would not exhibit offline, a phenomenon he regards as the online disinhibition effect. He describes people’s tendencies to expose hidden emotions, fears, and desires or to demonstrate unusual acts of kindness and generosity as “benign disinhibition,” and addresses the eruption of “rude language..harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats” as “toxic disinhibition” (Suler, 2004). Hence, trolling falls under toxic disinhibition. Referring to toxic disinhibition as “a blind catharsis,” Suler (2004) explains how the unique features of CMC cause some people to act out on “unsavory needs and wishes” online, unrestrained by the social and moral obligations that regulate their behaviors in the real world. In relation to Internet trolls, this theory offers an explanation for their employment of aggressive, antisocial behaviors towards others online and their ostensible indifference towards their targeted victims, which facilitates these behaviors. To clarify, this theory does not explain their desires to aggravate or to cause harm to other people, but rather what induces them to act on these desires, along with their apathy towards the pain and discomfort of their trolling victims.
Firstly, a thorough understanding the online disinhibition effect and its application to trolls requires background knowledge of their “natural environment,” the Internet, which may provide cues for explaining their socially unacceptable behaviors. As trolls live on the Internet, a global system of interconnected computer networks, environmental factors would encompass the unique combination of features that characterizes computer-mediated-communication (Boudourides, 1995). Firstly, CMC allows people to communicate with others anonymously or under pseudonyms (Hardaker, 2010). Moreover, CMC breaks down geographical barriers by enabling individuals from different physical locations to interact quickly and efficiently (Kiesler, et al., 1984). Hence, in this virtual realm, users lack the nonverbal behavioral cues present in face-to-face interactions, instead relying heavily on text and images (Boudourides, 1995). Furthermore, the Internet offers asynchronous modes of communication, such as e-mails and discussion forums, which gives users the flexibility to send each other messages intermittently on their own time, rather than in sync (Boudourides, 1995). Lastly, as a public domain, the Internet provides CMC users access to a boundless community of individuals (Hardaker, 2010). Suler (2004) acknowledges these distinct features of CMC as driving forces of the online disinhibition effect.
In his theory, Suler (2004) analyzes six psychological factors attributed to CMC that interplay and amplify the online disinhibition effect: dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronocity, minimization of authority, solipsistic introjection, and dissociative imagination. These factors can explain why trolls exemplify a lack of social and moral obligations as they engage in socially deviant practices online. Firstly, Suler (2004) explains that the anonymity provided by CMC plays an integral role in inducing people to act more freely on the Internet by enabling them to conceal some or all of their identities under usernames or pseudonyms. The knowledge that other users cannot easily identify who they are enacts a process of dissociation, in which they separate their actions online from their offline identities (Suler, 2004). Douglas and McGarty’s (2001) found that people tend to exchange more hostile and threatening messages to others online under anonymous identities than when their identities are known, which supports the theory’s claim that users exhibit less social inhibitions online, due to anonymity. According to theory, anonymous trolls engage in disruptive or hostile behaviors, “almost as if superego restrictions and moral cognitive processes have been temporarily suspended from the online psyche,” due to a lack of self-awareness, which allows them to avert responsibility for the actions they do not acknowledge as their own (Suler, 2004). In support of this explanation, Phillips (2011) noticed that most of the trolls she interviewed continued to refer to the various identities they assume online in third-person when describing the trolling activities they had engaged in as these characters. The absence of the first person narrative when recounting their own actions reflects a cognitive separation of their offline selves and their online troll characters. Moreover, Suler (2004) claims that the opportunity for users to physically hide their identities in CMC results in a loss of social inhibitions as people feel more confident to express themselves without the fear of judgment for their physical attributes. In addition, the physical invisibility of other people causes them to behave with less restraint, due to the absence of observable, nonverbal reactions from their respondents, which can hinder their willingness to share their thoughts as desired if available (Suler, 2004). For example, blind to their victims’ wounded facial expressions, trolls can more easily disparage them without feelings of remorse, as they cannot discern the visible consequences of their actions. In the same way, Suler (2004) notes that the use of asynchronous communication outlets provided by the Internet disinhibits people by excusing them from dealing with others’ immediate reactions as well as reflecting upon the consequences of their actions. As trolls mainly occupy asynchronous communication channels, such as Reddit and 4Chan, this psychological factor can largely explain their tendency to post malicious comments or wildly inappropriate images. To clarify, the intermittent feedback model can facilitate trolls’ social and moral negligence by obstructing the process of self-reflection for engaging in such detrimental behaviors, enabling them to enact an “emotional hit and run” and evade taking responsibility for their misconduct (Suler, 2004). Adding to this idea of people’s neglect for social and moral responsibility due to anonymity and invisibility, Suler (2004) asserts that the absence of known identities and face-to-face cues in cyberspace minimizes the role of social status for governing behaviors. As most Internet users’ socioeconomic standing remains unknown and therefore irrelevant in the virtual world, people feel empowered to express themselves imprudently, unrestricted by the fear of punishment from authority figures (Kiesler et al., 1984; Suler, 2004). Also, without the visual cues that indicate a person’s authority offline, such as dress and body language, Internet users generally depend on their writing skills, the quality of their ideas, and their technical know-how to influence others and to evaluate others’ power, which may cause them to speak more frequently and brazenly online (Suler, 2004). Therefore, trolls may use their words to deceive, aggravate, or assault others as a demonstration of power. In support of this idea, Weev, a self-identifying troll with a vendetta against “powerful people” and “big media,” professes “the primary mode of my art is my rhetoric” (CITE INTERVIEW). Furthermore, the theory submits that the lack of visual, nonverbal cues in this text-based medium may cause people to experience solipsistic introjection, a phenomenon in which they attribute qualities to other users, based on “personal expectations, wishes, and needs,” thereby creating somewhat fictional characters, whom they acknowledge as part of their imagination (Suler, 2004). In this dimension, users feel free to express themselves as they wish, due to their misperception of others as imaginary characters, rather than real people with genuine feelings. Relating to this concept, Suler (2004) proposes that people also tend to view their online identities as fictitious personas, along with the characters they invent, thus leading them to perceive the Internet as an imaginary world, where the social and moral boundaries that limit them in reality do not apply. Accordingly, trolls dissociate “online fiction from offline fact,” rejecting accepting responsibility for their misconduct, which they attribute to the imaginary characters they assume online (Suler, 2004).
Firstly, a thorough understanding the online disinhibition effect and its application to trolls requires background knowledge of their “natural environment,” the Internet, which may provide cues for explaining their socially unacceptable behaviors. As trolls live on the Internet, a global system of interconnected computer networks, environmental factors would encompass the unique combination of features that characterizes computer-mediated-communication (Boudourides, 1995). Firstly, CMC allows people to communicate with others anonymously or under pseudonyms (Hardaker, 2010). Moreover, CMC breaks down geographical barriers by enabling individuals from different physical locations to interact quickly and efficiently (Kiesler, et al., 1984). Hence, in this virtual realm, users lack the nonverbal behavioral cues present in face-to-face interactions, instead relying heavily on text and images (Boudourides, 1995). Furthermore, the Internet offers asynchronous modes of communication, such as e-mails and discussion forums, which gives users the flexibility to send each other messages intermittently on their own time, rather than in sync (Boudourides, 1995). Lastly, as a public domain, the Internet provides CMC users access to a boundless community of individuals (Hardaker, 2010). Suler (2004) acknowledges these distinct features of CMC as driving forces of the online disinhibition effect.
In his theory, Suler (2004) analyzes six psychological factors attributed to CMC that interplay and amplify the online disinhibition effect: dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronocity, minimization of authority, solipsistic introjection, and dissociative imagination. These factors can explain why trolls exemplify a lack of social and moral obligations as they engage in socially deviant practices online. Firstly, Suler (2004) explains that the anonymity provided by CMC plays an integral role in inducing people to act more freely on the Internet by enabling them to conceal some or all of their identities under usernames or pseudonyms. The knowledge that other users cannot easily identify who they are enacts a process of dissociation, in which they separate their actions online from their offline identities (Suler, 2004). Douglas and McGarty’s (2001) found that people tend to exchange more hostile and threatening messages to others online under anonymous identities than when their identities are known, which supports the theory’s claim that users exhibit less social inhibitions online, due to anonymity. According to theory, anonymous trolls engage in disruptive or hostile behaviors, “almost as if superego restrictions and moral cognitive processes have been temporarily suspended from the online psyche,” due to a lack of self-awareness, which allows them to avert responsibility for the actions they do not acknowledge as their own (Suler, 2004). In support of this explanation, Phillips (2011) noticed that most of the trolls she interviewed continued to refer to the various identities they assume online in third-person when describing the trolling activities they had engaged in as these characters. The absence of the first person narrative when recounting their own actions reflects a cognitive separation of their offline selves and their online troll characters. Moreover, Suler (2004) claims that the opportunity for users to physically hide their identities in CMC results in a loss of social inhibitions as people feel more confident to express themselves without the fear of judgment for their physical attributes. In addition, the physical invisibility of other people causes them to behave with less restraint, due to the absence of observable, nonverbal reactions from their respondents, which can hinder their willingness to share their thoughts as desired if available (Suler, 2004). For example, blind to their victims’ wounded facial expressions, trolls can more easily disparage them without feelings of remorse, as they cannot discern the visible consequences of their actions. In the same way, Suler (2004) notes that the use of asynchronous communication outlets provided by the Internet disinhibits people by excusing them from dealing with others’ immediate reactions as well as reflecting upon the consequences of their actions. As trolls mainly occupy asynchronous communication channels, such as Reddit and 4Chan, this psychological factor can largely explain their tendency to post malicious comments or wildly inappropriate images. To clarify, the intermittent feedback model can facilitate trolls’ social and moral negligence by obstructing the process of self-reflection for engaging in such detrimental behaviors, enabling them to enact an “emotional hit and run” and evade taking responsibility for their misconduct (Suler, 2004). Adding to this idea of people’s neglect for social and moral responsibility due to anonymity and invisibility, Suler (2004) asserts that the absence of known identities and face-to-face cues in cyberspace minimizes the role of social status for governing behaviors. As most Internet users’ socioeconomic standing remains unknown and therefore irrelevant in the virtual world, people feel empowered to express themselves imprudently, unrestricted by the fear of punishment from authority figures (Kiesler et al., 1984; Suler, 2004). Also, without the visual cues that indicate a person’s authority offline, such as dress and body language, Internet users generally depend on their writing skills, the quality of their ideas, and their technical know-how to influence others and to evaluate others’ power, which may cause them to speak more frequently and brazenly online (Suler, 2004). Therefore, trolls may use their words to deceive, aggravate, or assault others as a demonstration of power. In support of this idea, Weev, a self-identifying troll with a vendetta against “powerful people” and “big media,” professes “the primary mode of my art is my rhetoric” (CITE INTERVIEW). Furthermore, the theory submits that the lack of visual, nonverbal cues in this text-based medium may cause people to experience solipsistic introjection, a phenomenon in which they attribute qualities to other users, based on “personal expectations, wishes, and needs,” thereby creating somewhat fictional characters, whom they acknowledge as part of their imagination (Suler, 2004). In this dimension, users feel free to express themselves as they wish, due to their misperception of others as imaginary characters, rather than real people with genuine feelings. Relating to this concept, Suler (2004) proposes that people also tend to view their online identities as fictitious personas, along with the characters they invent, thus leading them to perceive the Internet as an imaginary world, where the social and moral boundaries that limit them in reality do not apply. Accordingly, trolls dissociate “online fiction from offline fact,” rejecting accepting responsibility for their misconduct, which they attribute to the imaginary characters they assume online (Suler, 2004).