Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren volgelbah Here. Back in the day when brain Stuff
Speaker 1: had a YouTube show, we got enough mean comments that
Speaker 1: we once did a whole episode where we just read
Speaker 1: them off. My favorite about me was when someone took
Speaker 1: the time out of their one precious life to write
Speaker 1: down and then post quote, your arms are crap and
Speaker 1: so is your face, which I think is objectively funny.
Speaker 1: But also, I'm just trying to talk about science on
Speaker 1: the Internet. So even if that statement happened to be true,
Speaker 1: isn't saying it to a fellow human person a little
Speaker 1: uncalled for? Whether it's a social media app, a chat stream,
Speaker 1: a comment section, or a message forum, the Internet seems
Speaker 1: to be a magnet for nasty comments, partially because few
Speaker 1: result in real world consequences. But why are people so
Speaker 1: mean on the Internet. The route, it seems, may lie
Speaker 1: deep within the human psyche. The majority of our communication
Speaker 1: is nonverbal, composed of body language, eye contact, speech tone,
Speaker 1: and language patterns. Without this information to help us process
Speaker 1: and categorize information, our minds are left to sort through
Speaker 1: the uncertain, and, thanks to a leftover prehistoric pensiant for
Speaker 1: fight or flight. Being unsure about another person's intent often
Speaker 1: creates a negative reaction to a perceived threat. Also, by
Speaker 1: continually presenting only our curated best selves online and reaping
Speaker 1: the emotional benefits of lots of likes or up votes
Speaker 1: or what have you, psychologists say our self esteem may
Speaker 1: bloom disproportionately and negatively impact our self control. The result,
Speaker 1: we may feel entitled to be mean. Experts also posit
Speaker 1: that people may actually forget that they're speaking out loud
Speaker 1: when they post a snarky comment. Writing something from a
Speaker 1: smartphone almost seems like you're talking to yourself. It may
Speaker 1: be especially hard for people to remember that there are
Speaker 1: real humans behind popular or professional accounts. This entitlement or
Speaker 1: lack of inhibition may also be connected to the physical
Speaker 1: distance from the people to whom those comments are directed.
Speaker 1: Research has shown that the closer the physical proximity you
Speaker 1: have to someone, the less likely you are to be
Speaker 1: mean spirited. For example, one study found that game show
Speaker 1: contestants we're less likely to vote off a contestant standing
Speaker 1: next to them than one standing further away. And this
Speaker 1: meanness affects more than just our online lives. Being unpleasant
Speaker 1: in a virtual world can spill over into real life,
Speaker 1: resulting in an increase in aggressive communication with coworkers, family members,
Speaker 1: and friends, causing damage to relationships that must later be repaired.
Speaker 1: While being unkind online can temporarily boost self esteem, it's
Speaker 1: a short lived high. A lasting self esteem is correlated
Speaker 1: with things like setting and achieving goals and forming meaningful
Speaker 1: connections within a group. Still, the internet seems to attract
Speaker 1: comments that people wouldn't dare express publicly in three dimensions,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to hot topics such as gender
Speaker 1: expression or gun rights. But what can you do if
Speaker 1: you become a target. Many online publications now require commenters
Speaker 1: to register and provide a valid email address in order
Speaker 1: to put the brakes on trolls, that is, posters who
Speaker 1: intentionally comment producatively to get a rise out of others,
Speaker 1: But whether it actually makes a difference is debatable. Back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, South Korea mandated that all
Speaker 1: websites with more than one hundred thousand users had to
Speaker 1: require them to enter their real names as well as
Speaker 1: input personal information at registration, in an effort to reduce
Speaker 1: abuse of comments. This law wound up being scrapped because
Speaker 1: negative comments only declined by zero point nine percent in
Speaker 1: the following year, and adding identifying info left people more
Speaker 1: vulnerable to hacking. On a more personal level, one of
Speaker 1: the most effective strategies for diffusing heated situations is to
Speaker 1: give yourself a time out. Take a few minutes or
Speaker 1: hours to cool off before you reply, and when you do,
Speaker 1: stay calm. Just ask the person to stop, or go
Speaker 1: straight to blocking them and or reporting their behavior to
Speaker 1: the powers that be in that corner of the internet.
Speaker 1: Don't respond to negative comments with negativity of your own.
Speaker 1: If you find it difficult to resist a retort, There's
Speaker 1: sometimes the option of disabling comments altogether. If threats seem
Speaker 1: likely to escalate and spill over into real life, make
Speaker 1: a police report. Even in jurisdictions that don't have specific
Speaker 1: laws against online harassment, wider anti harassment laws may apply
Speaker 1: a document the scope and depth of the behavior. Of course,
Speaker 1: pursuing any kind of legal action is most effective if
Speaker 1: you haven't thrown any gasoline on the fire. It can
Speaker 1: be infuriating when someone treats you rudely, but you always
Speaker 1: have the option to leave it alone. Is it worth
Speaker 1: the mental energy to even dignify it with a response.
Speaker 1: As with all interactions with difficult people, it helps to
Speaker 1: remember the source. People who are lashing out usually have
Speaker 1: troubles of their own and are simply looking to exert
Speaker 1: control or discomfort, all in an effort to make themselves
Speaker 1: feel a bit better. What I tried to take from
Speaker 1: my time on YouTube is that those people who commented
Speaker 1: about my arms or whatever don't know me. They saw
Speaker 1: a version of past me who went into a studio
Speaker 1: and made a video one time, and whatever they think
Speaker 1: of her, it has nothing to do with me, with
Speaker 1: my full being, and probably a lot to do with
Speaker 1: their own state of mind. Of course, mental health is
Speaker 1: really complicated and something that a lot of people struggle with,
Speaker 1: especially in stressful or uncertain times, and our brains are
Speaker 1: somewhat wired toward negativity, both to give it and to
Speaker 1: remember it. Prehistorically speaking, it was more important to remember
Speaker 1: to avoid the threatening tiger than to remember to approach
Speaker 1: a friendly dog. If you catch yourself frequently lashing out
Speaker 1: online or otherwise getting stuck in negative thought loops, consider
Speaker 1: talking to a healthcare professional about it. The world can
Speaker 1: be really rough, but spreading negativity externally or internally isn't
Speaker 1: going to make it better. Navigating mental health is an
Speaker 1: individual venture. Depending on the situation, Experts recommend everything from
Speaker 1: exercise to talk therapy, to medication to just trying to
Speaker 1: remember to approach the friendly dog. By recognizing nice things
Speaker 1: that happen, finishing a project or chore, seeing a cool
Speaker 1: bug or rock, or having a good interaction with a
Speaker 1: friend or stranger, you can sometimes overshadow negativity and sometimes
Speaker 1: train your brain to seek out more positive rewards. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the art Is There a Psychological
Speaker 1: Reason for People Being Mean? On the Internet? On how
Speaker 1: stuffworks dot Com, written by Julia Layton. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: a production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. But
Speaker 1: four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app,
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