Oh, Internet. What a glorious social tool you are.

Let me preface this by saying that i love the internet. The ability to obtain any amount of information on a given subject almost instantly has completely revolutionized the way that we interact with the world around us. That being said, there have also been some not too shining examples of what happens when you grant someone anonymity and an audience. I propose to you the following: A well known podcaster's "Theory of Internet Dickwad"

If you've ever been on youtube, you've no doubt seen evidence of this phenomenon in the form of what the internet calls "Trolls". A troll is someone who gets on a forum or other place where opinions are exchanged and either puts forth a purposely controversial idea, or takes a dump on someone else's opinion purely for the enjoyment of seeing the other people in the forum throw their collective yet futile rage at the troll.

A good example of Trolling which i saw just a few weeks ago went as follows: go to a blogging site dominated by mostly female, mostly liberal bloggers and post this.

I highly doubt this is this person's actual opinion, but they chose to post it to elicit a flaming rage-filled response from the collective community. Frustratingly for the people who this offended (and hilariously for those of us who realize its not a good idea to feed the trolls) it is impossible to really do anything about this kind of thing other than to ignore it.

How does this relate to social psychology you ask? I'll tell you. Social psychologist recognize this phenomenon and attribute it to two factors. First, the anonymity afforded by the internet reduces the person's feelings of accountability, making them feel less responsible for their actions because they won't have to suffer the consequences for them (Zimbardo, 1969). Second, there is reduced self awareness in an anonymous setting, meaning that not only do people not feel responsible for themselves, they are actually less likely to consider the consequences of their actions in the first place, leading to more dickwad-ish behavior. (Zimbardo, 1969)

Zimbardo, P. G. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 17, 237-307.