How effective is online outrage?
Open accessAbstract
In today’s polarized political climate, it is important to consider how moral emotions like outrage can be harnessed for good. Spring et al. [ 1 Spring V. et al. The upside of outrage. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2018; 22: 1067-1069 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (32) Google Scholar ] thoughtfully examine the ‘upsides’ of moral outrage, suggesting it can create positive social consequences by catalyzing collective action. To illustrate this, they argue that sharing outrage on social media creates common knowledge and organizes collective behavior around important moral issues. We agree that moral outrage can have positive social consequences [ 2 Crockett M.J. Moral outrage in the digital age. Nat. Hum. Behav. 2017; 1: 769-771 Crossref PubMed Scopus (172) Google Scholar ], but suggest that online outrage has more downsides than upsides. In the context of social media, outrage may reduce the effectiveness of collective action and limit participation in the public square.
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Social media can serve as a catalyst for moral outrage and social conflict.
“Indeed, recent research suggests that social media can serve as a catalyst for moral outrage and social conflict [16 ,17].”
From Two social lives: how differences between online and offline interaction influence social outcomes (2020) · cites this paper as [17]
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“Social media lowers the threshold for expressing outrage by reducing its costs [2], and outrage spreads like wild fi re online [5].”
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- Authors
- Brady, W. J., & Crockett, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Crockett, M.J.
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-02
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 79-80
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2905840940
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Funders
- NSF (#1808868)
- Democracy Fund (#R-201809-03031)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Keywords
- moral outrage, social media, collective action, political polarization, common knowledge, citizen participation, moral emotions
- MeSH terms
- Morals, Politics
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