Activity Type Title

Chapter 1. Chapter

Article

From the Pages of Scientific American

Rudeness on the Internet

From the pages of Scientific American. Rudeness on the Internet. Mean comments arise from a lack of eye contact more than from anonymity. Read any Web forum, and you’ll agree: people are meaner online than in “real life.” Psychologists have largely blamed this disinhibition on anonymity and invisibility: when you’re online, no one knows who you are or what you look like. A new study in Computers in Human Behavior, however, suggests that above and beyond anything else, we’re nasty on the Internet because we don’t make eye contact with our compatriots. Researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel asked 71 pairs of college students who did not know one another to debate an issue over Instant Messenger and try to come up with an agreeable solution. The pairs, seated in different rooms, chatted in various conditions: some were asked to share personal, identifying details; others could see side views of their partner’s body through webcams; and others were asked to maintain near-constant eye contact with the aid of close-up cameras attached to the top of their computer. Far more than anonymity or invisibility, whether or not the subjects had to look into their partner’s eyes predicted how mean they were. When their eyes were hidden, participants were twice as likely to be hostile. Even if the subjects were both unrecognizable (with only their eyes on screen) and anonymous, they rarely made threats if they maintained eye contact. Although no one knows exactly why eye contact is so crucial, lead author and behavioral scientist Noam Lapidot-Lefler, now at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College in Israel, notes that seeing a partner’s eyes “helps you understand the other person’s feelings, the signals that the person is trying to send you,” which fosters empathy and communication. The author is Melinda Wenner Moyer. Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2012 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

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1.1 Quiz

1.People’s levels of meanness and hostility on Internet forums and message boards has in the past been attributed to:

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Correct.
Incorrect.

2. Lapidot-Lefler and colleagues hypothesize that the specific, measurable factor behind negative interactions online is:

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Correct.
Incorrect.

3.The varying “chat conditions” described in the excerpt would be considered the study’s:

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Correct.
Incorrect.

4. While Lapidot-Lefler measured a specific factor and found it to be predictive of people’s negative online behavior, they also suggest a broader theoretical reason underlying why that factor is important. That reason is:

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5.The text describes a gender difference in aggression, which could suggest that one group may be more aggressive in an online chat situation than the other. Which statement best describes that difference?

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Correct.
Incorrect.