Online communities are important places for social interaction: People from all over the world meet in internet forums, newsgroups, subreddits, or Facebook groups to discuss common interests. But easygoing discussions about shared hobbies can suddenly turn into hate and malice, flame wars (disputes between hostile groups), bullying, and trolling. Long-standing members of such online communities can often tell you a thing or two about how quickly the mood can change and a toxic atmosphere can develop.

“We were interested in why online communities that have formed to peacefully discuss their hobby suddenly start attacking each other verbally in a systematic and brutal way,” explains Marius Lüdicke, head of the Institute for International Marketing Management at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. Together with Olivier Sibai from the University of London and Kristine de Valck from HEC Paris, he wanted to get to the bottom of this question: The three researchers analyzed the interactions in a British online community over the course of 18 years in a longitudinal interpretive study – and were able to find out why and how toxic behavior becomes entrenched in online communities.

Brutal behavior in a music forum

The community they scrutinized was a British online forum for the music genre of hard house. The forum was founded in 2001 and existed until 2018. “Clubbing culture is all about fun and escapism, so I was surprised by how conflictual the atmosphere was there.”, explains Olivier Sibai.

The hard house forum had around 20,000 members, who wrote a total of around seven million posts. The researchers not only analyzed all online interactions in this forum for patterns of verbal violence, Olivier Sibai also visited 15 community events in real life and conducted interviews with moderators and members. “Why these people were arguing online while being friends in real life was a big mystery,” he says. “To understand this, I had to become part of the community. And I realized that online chatting seems to lead to constant frustration and ultimately to a toxic culture.”

In the analysis, three typical patterns of toxic behavior and verbal violence – known as “brutalization” in technical jargon – emerged. The researchers call them sadistic entertainment, clan warfare, and vigilante justice. 

According to the researchers, sadistic entertainment often resembles a bullfight: an established member of the community provokes another (often less active) member with increasingly drastic insults in order to elicit an emotional response and thus entertain the community. Most of those involved (with the exception of the victim) see these fights as harmless games in which no one really comes to any harm. According to co-author Marius Lüdicke, this idea is “a form of cultural violence because it dismisses hurtful behavior as harmless or even self-inflicted. The moderators hardly do anything about it because these fights can revitalize the community at the expense of individuals and the consequences only become visible later.”  

Clan warfare refers to disputes between two sub-groups in a community. These wars usually arise from a dispute between two individuals in which one member accuses another of unacceptable behavior. Clans are formed around these individuals and verbally war for months or even years to either protect the community from unwelcome intruders (established clans) or to topple the old, conservative members from their throne (new clans). Ultimately, however, clan wars cause members to leave the community because they do not want to become a target.

These first two patterns of toxic behavior are often the reason for the third: vigilante justice. If moderators do not intervene sufficiently and stop the verbal violence, members feel they have the right and the duty to enforce the community guidelines themselves – through more verbal violence. Researchers call this behavior “verbal lynching”: The (alleged or actual) offenders are insulted and humiliated until they leave the online community. This sometimes goes so far as to include death threats. Within the community, vigilante justice is legitimized by the fact that the victims have only received the just punishment for their behavior.

Online violence does not lead to real-life violence

With their study, the authors shed light on the dark side of online communities – a first step towards combating such toxic patterns. Moderators have an important role to play here: “If you recognize and name these patterns early on and, above all, speak out against the supposed harmlessness of verbal violence, you can probably curb this behavior,” explains Marius Lüdicke from WU. “However, the extent to which this works also needs to be investigated empirically.”

At least one result of the study gives cause for optimism: The toxic behavior in the forum studied was limited to the online world and did not spill over to meetings in the real world, where there was no evidence of sadistic entertainment or clan wars. And during the 18-year existence of the forum, there was only one brawl between two members – the only documented case of physical violence in real life.

“Nevertheless, verbal violence on the internet should not be taken lightly,” warns Marius Lüdicke from WU. “There is now sufficient evidence that it can lead to depression, anxiety, feelings of shame, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and even increases the rates of self-harm and suicide among young people. The study contributes to a better understanding of online violence and thus to a better response to it.”

Details of the study and further information

Sibai, O., Luedicke, M. K., & De Valck, K. (2024). Why Online Consumption Communities Brutalize. Journal of Consumer Research.

Link to the study