According to this blog post research has shown that people talking on IM treated users they considered to be geographically far away in a way different to those considered geographically near by: they trusted them less, were less likely to be persuaded by them, and were more likely to give deceptive portrayals of themselves.
So maybe we’re doing the wrong thing. Maybe the way to reduce trolling is not to display real locations, but to fake them – increasing the number of users who appear to be from the same town as you, in the hope that you’d take more care in your own backyard.
They (you know who I mean) have always claimed that the elimination of distance, where everyone was proximate to everyone else, would Make Things Better.
Turns out people can be jerks no matter what. Color me gobsmacked.
I expect it’s a case of “I’ll never see this person in the flesh, nor anyone they know, so I can act out as much as I like.” It’s probably below the level of consciousness, but no less indicative of the type of person they are. Conscience being defined as how you act when no one is watching, what do we call this kind of response?