The internet isn’t as toxic as a loud minority makes it seem, study finds

A small but vocal group of online users generates most conflicts and misinformation, leading Americans to assume the worst about one another.

A new study published in the journal PNAS Nexus indicates that people may dramatically overestimate how common toxic behavior is online.

Researchers surveyed 1,090 American adults and then compared their beliefs with actual data from social media platforms collected in previous large-scale studies.

On average, participants thought that 43% of all Reddit users have posted severely toxic content, when in reality it was only 3.1%.

A similar trend was observed with Facebook, where 47% of all users were thought to share false or misleading news stories. However, existing research suggests that the actual number is approximately 8.5%.

Previous studies have shown that small user groups are responsible for the majority of online disputes. On Reddit, for example, 1% of conflict-seeking Reddit communities produced 74% of all conflict across the platform.

Meanwhile, over half (60%) of hateful speech on Twitter came from a small right-wing community.

Researchers suggest that people may recall extreme posts more vividly or encounter them more frequently because social media algorithms amplify attention-grabbing content. This leads to an assumption that toxic behavior is the norm online.

However, the participants nearly accurately predicted the total amount of content produced by hostile users. They estimated 38%, when in reality it is 33%.

The study didn’t specify whether it filtered out human users from bots, which are automated computer programs that mimic human behavior on social networks.

Bots are thought to generate about 20% of social media chatter about global events and increase users’ exposure to negative and inflammatory narratives, as well as exacerbate social conflict online.

Accurate data changes the perception of society

Altering these erroneous beliefs about how many users engage in hostile behavior appears to change people’s perceptions of society.

When participants were shown accurate information about the frequency of severe online toxicity, they reported feeling more optimistic and less concerned that society is in moral decline.

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Moreover, they were less likely to believe that most Americans are comfortable with harmful or aggressive online behavior.

​Americans across the political spectrum hold a negative view of social media, with 71% of Republicans and 59% Democrats saying these platforms have a mostly bad impact on the country, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey.

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