Moral outrage on social media

Moral outrage on social media is becoming more common.  While it may have initially occurred in non-health domains, it is now increasing across health-related platforms.

There is an increasing and progressive frequency of outrage expressed through social media.  This involves the initial content and posts as well as subsequent engagement.  While the increased vitriol seen on social media is also seen during in person interactions, the focus of this article will be on social media.

The term moral outrage is utilized to describe strong emotional reactions and associated oral, verbal, or written engagement in the setting of social media.  There is significant potential impact on across society and culture, including but not limited to, increased feelings of tribalism and an ‘us versus them’ mentality; personal attacks against individuals; division, between individuals and group; and decreased debate and discussion of important issues.  While this phenomenon may have started in political, moral, social, and cultural issues, it has become progressively more prominent in scientific discussion, including health-related issues.  As with other domains, this seems to be particularly noticeable on social media.

The consequences of moral outrage can negatively impact many different aspects of scientific debate and progress and have been discussed above.  In order to restore respectful, constructive, and progressive debate regarding issues of importance, it is necessary to better understand the nature and determinants of this phenomenon so that strategies can be implemented.  While all aspects of society would undoubtedly benefit from this, the emphasis of this article will be the healthcare setting.

Brady et al recently studied and reported on the mechanisms underlying the increase in moral outrage seen on social media.  Their study consisted of a combination of review of Twitter posts and behavioral experiments.  Their impression was that social media may increase the likelihood and severity of moral outrage.  For the purpose of their study, they incorporated prior definitions of moral outrage as occurring due to a perception of violation of ethical norms in a setting where expression of emotion may either prevent further occurrences or increase likelihood for achieving social justice.

Brady et al reported several important findings from their study that inform an understanding of the determinants of moral outrage on social media.  They found that expressions of moral outrage that received positive social feedback within the social media network was significantly associated with the future expression of moral outrage.  In essence, positive feedback incentivized further moral outrage.   They also reported that as individuals learned the norms that had been established within the network in which they were engaging could result in those individuals expressing greater degrees of outrage than they might otherwise.  It was also found that when groups were more extreme and more ideological, they were less sensitive to the feedback in their expression of moral outrage.  They noted that the design of social media algorithms likely impacts the extent of social feedback individuals receive which then affects their likelihood of expressing further moral outrage.  The combination of learning the culture and norms of the group and reinforcement when expressing moral outrage was found to lead to individuals becoming more extreme over time.  It was also suggested that the design of social media platforms, particularly as it pertains to the algorithm for presentation of content to users likely impacts the extent of moral outrage that is expressed.

Applying the findings reported by Brady et al within the context of health-related social media, it becomes possible to better understand how extreme reactions and moral outrage can occur in the discussion and engagement related to health-related content.  By understanding the determinants of moral outrage, particularly the learning and reinforcement patterns, it is possible to better understand how individuals may become more extreme over time in their online engagement.

This information can inform strategies to reduce the extent and magnitude of social media outrage.  It is reasonable to suggest that an emphasis on response to the evidence underlying any claims and content may reduce the likelihood of expression of moral outrage through a more objective and considered evaluation of posted content.  It is also worthwhile considering whether different responses to moral outrage may impact the likelihood of future expression of outrage by changing the type of reinforcement and feedback provided to online behavior.  It may also be possible to improve the situation by establishing different norms within health-related social media platforms.  Such paradigms may promote less extreme reactions.  These are all important areas for future research.

The philosophy of House Call Media is to provide healthcare trained social media management and evidence-driven content development.  Through this approach the emphasis is placed on accurate and current content that builds the social media platform in positive directions without incitement of moral outrage and extreme reactions.  To learn more, please visit www.housecallmedia.com.

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REFERENCE

Brady WJ, McLoughlin K, Doan TN, Crockett MJ.  How Social Learning Amplifies Moral Outrage Expression in Online Social Networks.  Sci Adv 2021: 7(33): eabe5641.  doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe5641.