Many have long suspected the internet is essentially one big roiling wellspring of bile, but there hasn't been much scientific proof to bolster this premise until now. A new study in The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, suggests the internet isn't just enabling and giving voice to trolls, it's actually a feedback loop that's poisoning the well of discourse and infecting us all with the negativity virus, amplifying the petty cretin's barbaric yawp in a self-replicating incubator of savage behavior.
The study attempted to measure what researchers called “the nasty effect” online. The researchers showed participants a blog post about a new tech product, then asked them to read comments about the post. One group were shown constructive, polite discourse, while the second were exposed to more crass commentary. They found that the readers who were forced to wade into the typically teeth-gnashing battle zone of the commentariat came away from the article with a more negative impression on the original post than the former group.
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