Crowds’ malice behind the screen: The normative influences of online dehumanization on discrimination against foreigners

Abstract

With the ubiquitous presence of the Internet, comments that dehumanize foreigners are frequently found on social networking platforms. These comments may function as dehumanizing norms and facilitate discrimination against foreigners in the offline world. In the current research, three studies were conducted to explore this possibility. Study 1 was a correlational study that revealed a positive association between dehumanizing norms and discrimination against foreigners. Studies 2 and 3 manipulated dehumanizing norms and found that these norms promoted discrimination against foreigners via increased prejudice toward them. Study 3 further measured perceived online anonymity and revealed that decreasing perceived online anonymity buffered the destructive influences of dehumanizing norms. In conclusion, to our knowledge, the current research represents the first attempt to empirically explore the normative influences of dehumanization on discrimination against foreigners and provides practical implications for comment management on the Internet.

Keywords

anonymity dehumanization discrimination Internet social norms

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