Resume: A new study examines the impact of the Internet on human morality, highlighting how evolved responses such as compassion and the urge to punish are distorted online. The constant stream of extreme stimuli on the internet leads to compassion fatigue, public shaming and virtue signaling.
These phenomena occur when empathy becomes overloaded and punishment can easily be imposed in a cost-free, virtual environment. The authors call for research into better platform design and more transparency of algorithms.
Key Facts:
- The internet causes compassion fatigue by overloading empathy with constant news.
- Public shaming is widespread online due to easy, free punishment mechanisms.
- The authors call for research into platform design to mitigate the negative impacts.
Source: N.Y.U
In a review article, Claire Robertson and colleagues investigate how human morality, which developed in the context of small personal groups, functions on the Internet with more than five billion users.
Evolved human responses, such as compassion for victims and the urge to punish offenders, work differently online, the authors argue.
The Internet exposes users to large amounts of extremely morally relevant stimuli in the form of 24-hour news and deliberately scandalous content from sometimes physically distant locations.
Subjecting human brains to this new morally oversaturated environment has led to compassion fatigue, public shaming, ineffective collective action, and virtue signaling, according to the authors.
Compassion fatigue occurs because empathy is a precious cognitive resource, easily overloaded by the demands of 24-hour information about suffering.
Public shaming arises because the Internet makes it all too easy for very large numbers of people to indulge in the universal human desire to punish wrongdoers, which is thought to be an evolved adaptation to life in groups – but in small groups.
Because posting a conviction is virtually costless, it becomes a tempting way to signal moral virtue and group membership.
Real help can in some cases be replaced by non-costly forms of compassion, such as liking or sharing a post, which is of little help but makes people feel like they have fulfilled their moral responsibilities.
Moreover, the ease of online organizing leads to massive – but short-lived – social movements with superficial roots and little staying power.
The authors call for research into platform design features that sustain attention or engagement without creating negative externalities for individuals and society, and for greater public access to platform algorithms so that research can continue.
About this psychology and morality research news
Author: Claire Robertson
Source: N.Y.U
Contact: Claire Robertson-NYU
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Morality in the Anthropocene: The Perversion of Compassion and Punishment in the Online World” by Claire Robertson et al. PNAS nexus
Abstract
Morality in the Anthropocene: The Perversion of Compassion and Punishment in the Online World
Although much of human morality has developed in small-group environments, in modern times nearly 6 billion people use the Internet.
We argue that technological transformation has created an entirely new ecosystem that often does not fit our evolved adaptations for social life.
We discuss how developed responses to moral transgressions, such as compassion for victims of transgressions and punishment of wrongdoers, are disrupted by two key features of the online context.
First the dish of the Internet exposes us to an unnaturally high amount of extremely moral content, causing compassion fatigue and increasing public shame.
Second, the physical and psychological distance between moral actors online can lead to ineffective collective action and virtue signaling.
We discuss the practical implications of these mismatches and suggest directions for future research on morality in the Internet age.