It’s no secret that the looks department favors some people in many spheres of life including dating and employment, and now, online abuse has just been added to the list!
Just when we think that we are making progress in the fight against this vice, albeit a little, a concerning revelation is made: physically or socially attractive perpetrators, are less likely to be blamed.
The fight against online abuse may have just taken an interesting turn and become even tougher.
We definitely didn’t see this coming, or did we?
So far, we have mainly been focusing on creating awareness and encouraging online users to denounce the vice but it seems that we have to go back to the drawing board. It’s time change tact.
The fact that select people can get away with online abuse; Not because their abuses are misunderstood or any different from that of others, but because they score high in the looks department, is concerning.
The study
A study conducted by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) found that social media users are more likely to blame victims for online abuse than the perpetrators because they may have become indifferent to cyber-bullying.
That’s not all:
The study also found that people are less likely to be blamed for abuse if they are physically and socially attractive. This group is also likely to get more sympathy despite the fact that they are perpetrators of abuse.
In an earlier article, we looked at how social attitudes and norms hinder understanding of cyber harassment. The focus was on how this form of harassment is given little attention.
In the article, several solutions to ending or minimizing this vice were suggested. None was on the need to treat all perpetrators of cyber harassment the same way regardless of their physical appearance. That could have been a stretch since this could have inconceivable at the time. Now, it seems we have bigger problems than we initially thought.
The GCU and UWS study set out to test the relationship between attractiveness and blame. The researchers found that if someone was more physically or socially attractive, they were less likely to be blamed for the abuse and got more sympathy.
The research involved creating fake Facebook accounts for an equal number of males and females.
The researchers proceeded to post typical comments such as “Roll on 5 o’clock, going out for dinner with my pals” or “Really glad to finish that project at work”. They then responded with a range of positive, neutral and abusive comments. Some extreme and strongly worded comments included ‘I hope you die’.
Researchers then recruited 164 participants aged 18-59 and asked them to study each profile and its contents.
Next, the selected participants filled out a questionnaire about whether they thought the profile owner was to blame for the abuse and negative comments.
The results showed that most participants thought that the victims had it coming to them because they had provoked the abuse even though they had posted something mundane.
Dr. Chris Hand, a lecturer at GCU, said: ‘Our results could be due to an observer desensitization effect, or that participants interpreted the posts as indicative of friendly “teasing” or “banter” within an established social relationship. ‘
The researchers hope the results will help people who support victims of cyber-bullying. They need to understand that online abuse is often not the victim’s fault.
Our stand remains: Online abuse should not be tolerated at all!
Do you agree with this research? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
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