Social identity threat motivates science-discrediting online comments

PLoS One. 2015 Feb 3;10(2):e0117476. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117476. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Experiencing social identity threat from scientific findings can lead people to cognitively devalue the respective findings. Three studies examined whether potentially threatening scientific findings motivate group members to take action against the respective findings by publicly discrediting them on the Web. Results show that strongly (vs. weakly) identified group members (i.e., people who identified as "gamers") were particularly likely to discredit social identity threatening findings publicly (i.e., studies that found an effect of playing violent video games on aggression). A content analytical evaluation of online comments revealed that social identification specifically predicted critiques of the methodology employed in potentially threatening, but not in non-threatening research (Study 2). Furthermore, when participants were collectively (vs. self-) affirmed, identification did no longer predict discrediting posting behavior (Study 3). These findings contribute to the understanding of the formation of online collective action and add to the burgeoning literature on the question why certain scientific findings sometimes face a broad public opposition.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aggression
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Internet*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motivation
  • Public Opinion*
  • Science* / methods
  • Social Identification*
  • Video Games
  • Violence
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; no. GO 1674/2-2; http://www.dfg.de) grant to the second author (MG). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.