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Civility vs. Incivility in Online Social Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach
Angelo Antoci1, Alexia Delfino2, Fabio Paglieri3
1Department of Economics and Management, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
Plos One
|November 2, 2016
Summary
Civility on social networking sites (SNS) can become widespread if polite interactions are sufficiently rewarded. Otherwise, users may adopt self-protective behaviors, leading to suboptimal outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Economics
- Computer Science
Background:
- Incivility, including harassment and hate speech, is increasing on social networking sites (SNS).
- User behavior on SNS is influenced by interactions with both known and unknown individuals.
- Users adapt their strategies based on the civility of others online.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the dynamics of civil and uncivil interactions on SNS.
- To understand the consequences of online incivility for collective welfare.
- To model the spread of politeness and rudeness in online social networks.
Main Methods:
- An evolutionary game framework was developed using a mean-field approach.
- The model analyzes agent choices: interacting politely, interacting rudely, or opting out of SNS.
- Agent behavior is conditioned on the strategies of other users.
Main Results:
- Civility can generalize if its payoff increases sufficiently with the spread of politeness.
- A critical threshold of polite users is necessary for widespread civility.
- Failure to reach this threshold can lead to self-protective behaviors and non-optimal states.
Conclusions:
- The spread of civility on SNS is dependent on the relative payoffs of polite versus uncivil interactions.
- Self-protective strategies against online incivility can result in socially suboptimal outcomes.
- Intervention may be needed to promote civility and achieve better collective welfare online.
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