[Air-l] defending yourself online vs. offline research

[Bunz, Ulla]

The posts on trolling and whether it's taking place and who is the troll or not has made me wonder about something. My personal experience says that someone accused of something they perceive as negative (whether it's trolling, lying, stealing, cheating, aggressiveness, or anything else so long as you personally feel it's negative and unjustified) usually tends to feel the urge to defend him or herself. Different people experience this urge to different degrees. Some can "swallow" more than others and rather not drag out the unpleasantness by talking about it, even if they stand wrongly accused in their own perspective. Others will fight back and go to extremes to clear their name. Most of us fall somewhere in between. 
Here my question: Is there research that looks at how the interaction medium affects such behavior? Meaning, are we more or less likely to tend towards one of the two extremes described above because we're interacting online as opposed to offline? I know there is research on flaming (both the early one that said there's more flaming online than offline, and the later one that mitigated that statement somewhat). There is the hyperpersonal model on social anxiety being reduced online. But is there research that looks at whether we're more or less likely to defend ourselves online as opposed to offline?
Curious in Tallahassee,
Ulla
 
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Ulla Bunz
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University Center C, Suite 3100
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Email: ubunz at fsu.edu
Phone: 850-644-1809
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