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

[Ellis Godard]

My doctorate addressed the question in part, though what I'd really want to
see would be results of a controlled experiment. Maybe that's what's been
happening here? ;)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org 
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Bunz, Ulla
> Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 5:45 PM
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-l] defending yourself online vs. offline research
> 
> 
> 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
>  
> ---
> 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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