Are trolling, bullying, and flame wars an inevitable result of online communication? Does the anonymity and invisibility of cyberspace lead to toxic speech and behavior? How can we create more toxic-free environments online?

Without a doubt, the internet has revolutionized communications. It is an incredibly powerful tool that enables us to exchange ideas and information with people from all over the globe in an instant.

But it also seems to bring out the worst of people’s anti-social tendencies. Trolls were once fictional characters, nasty creatures living under fairytale bridges who only came out from their hiding places to harass those trying to pass over. Now trolls are real people in cyberspace who say things—often outrageous—just to get a reaction out of people. And they're all over the internet, not just in dark corners like 4chan. Look at the comments on mainstream sites, like Twitter or YouTube.

I mean, no! Don't look at the comments!! Never look at the comments!!!

也可以在网上进行精彩的讨论，每个人都礼貌地倾听并试图理解对方，即使他们在某些问题上意见不一致。当我们信仰不同时，我们可以共享文明规范。We can explore our disagreement with one another without makingad hominemattacks. We can try in good faith to reason with one another in the face of disagreement. And we can know when to let a disagreement go. This is all possible—but by no means guaranteed—in the cyberworld. It's much more likely in smaller networks of people who also interact with each other in the real world, not just online.

But when exchanges are between anonymous strangers他们在现实生活中永远不会见面或认识对方，这时候讨论往往会演变成挑衅、欺凌和谩骂。更糟糕的是，喷子和恶霸会很快被组织成暴徒，以他们不喜欢的观点为目标和骚扰对象(通常是女性)。《玩家门》便是一个典型的例子。

Mobs are nothing new in human history, of course. It should be no surprise that in the age of the internet we getonlinemobs, a virtual version of a real-life phenomenon. Instead of pitchforks and torches, their weapons are computers and smart phones. Like the mobs of yore, cyber mobs seek to threaten and intimidate.

关于我们在网上看到的所有这些反社会行为，一个重要的问题是，互联网是否只是为恶霸和喷子提供了一种新的行为方式，还是技术本身创造了一个全新的野兽。互联网让我们变成了更坏的人吗?

Psychologists who study this kind of question have noted that people do and say things in cyberspace that they wouldn’t normally do and say in face-to-face interactions. This kind of behavior is so pervasive, they’ve given it a name—the online disinhibition effect．虽然我们一直都有暴徒，但我们从来没有这么简单有效的方法来组织他们，不受地理限制，不受他们对目标造成的真正伤害，逃避责任或惩罚。这极大地改变了人类的生存环境。

It's not just that the internet makes it easier for bullies to bully. That is certainly true. You could also say that the internet makes it easier for generous people to donate to charity. The internet is indeed a very versatile tool that can be used for good or bad, depending on whose hands it’s in. But that does not make it a neutral tool.

Sure, we could say, blame the bullies, not the tools they use for their bad behavior. But that’s a bit like saying guns don’t kill people, people do. Yes, people do kill people, but having guns easily available, especially assault style weapons, makes it so much easier for people to hurt or kill others that we now have an epidemic of gun violence in this country. It’s disingenuous to say that the tools of destruction and what they make possible don’t play a role.

社会心理学几十年的研究表明，环境和情境对人们的行为有很大的影响。把人们放在特定的社交场合，你会一次又一次地看到相同的结果。Take something likethe bystander effect．这时，如果周围有其他人，人们就不太可能帮助受害者。同样，当人们与从未面对面的匿名陌生人互动时，他们往往会表现出反社会的行为。能够在现实生活中不受任何影响地欺凌他人，激发了那些通常不会表现出这种行为的人身上的欺凌。There can be a major mismatch between theironlinebehavior and theirofflinebehavior. That’sthe online disinhibition effect．

然而，将人们的不良行为归咎于“互联网”并不完全正确。这个目标太模糊了。It’s more accurate to blame particular platforms on the internet thatallowbullying, because there are sites, likeThe New York Times,在那里，恶霸和喷子是不受欢迎的。他们做了很多工作来审核评论，以保持讨论的公正性和有效性。当然，这既昂贵又耗时，这也是为什么越来越多的网站和平台不这么做的部分原因。但它表明，至少世界杯赛程2022赛程表欧洲区有可能在网上创造一种环境，让匿名的陌生人可以文明地提出不同意见，只要他们愿意这样做。

But don't get your hopes up yet! Bad behavior online is often good for profits, and we know that's the bottom line for most of these sites. Take a look atthis article from the Pew Research Centerthat summarizes a large-scale canvas of more than a thousand technology experts, scholars, corporate practitioners, and government leaders on whether they think that “public discourse online will become more or less shaped by bad actors, harassment, trolls, etc.” Overall, it presents a rather pessimistic forecast for online discourse.

So, how do we as consumers get platforms that do very little to curb bad behavior to change their guidelines, or, as is often the case,enforcetheir guidelines? Do we just stop using them or can we create change in some other way? And how should online spaces be redesigned so that there are real consequences for bad actors? How do we eliminate anti-social behavior to the extent that we can?

Tune in to this week's show with guest Michael Lynch, author ofThe Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data, and share your thoughts with us here.