Outrage is a common human feeling. But for some reasons, the Internet seems to arouse this outrage more than any other medium . This is the focus of a study by Yale University psychology researcher Molly J. Crockett . In her article published in Nature Human Behaviour , Crockett states that digital media “may exacerbate the expression of moral outrage by inflating the stimuli that trigger it, reducing some of its costs and amplifying many of its personal benefits.”
The first reason the researcher points out is that, through the Internet, punishments for overreactions are seen as less likely . In this way, the possibility of getting retaliation or being the object of revenge would not seem so real. "Embarrassing a stranger in an alley is much riskier than joining a crowd on Twitter."
And while it's hard to come across anything outrageously outrageous on the street, there's virtually no need to search for it online. As Crockett explains, this type of content is delivered directly to screens by friends and newsfeed algorithms.
On the other hand, expressing outrage about a certain issue can become a sought-after moral distinction . “It conveys to other members of your network that you are part of the group and that you have particular moral values, which makes people who share those values more likely to trust you.”
According to Crockett , clickbait , sensational headlines that seek to get more views , are a natural algeria phone number consequence of an information ecosystem that prioritizes content with greater engagement . “If headlines that provoke the most outrage are more likely to be clicked on, they will outnumber other, less sensational headlines, which creates an incentive for journalists to write headlines that provoke the strongest emotions possible.”
However, the researcher says that further research is needed to determine whether social polarisation, which is increasing worldwide, could be fuelled by this online outrage.