Anonymous defamation on the Internet has become a pressing global concern. From a motivational perspective, previous research has indicated that the primary drivers of such behavior are offenders' sense of justice and anger. Although anger facilitates aggressive behavior, people are generally less likely to feel anger toward matters unrelated to themselves, even when moral violations are involved, and anger is more often directed toward those with whom one has a close relationship.
This study examined the hypothesis that offenders direct strong feelings of justice or anger toward victims with whom they have no direct interaction because they experience a parasocial relationship—a one-sided sense of closeness or friendship toward the victim.
A screening survey was administered to 3,000 monitors registered with a private research company (250 men and 250 women in each of six age groups: teens, and every ten years up to 60+). Among them, 349 respondents reported having engaged in defamation toward individuals with whom they had never interacted, either face-to-face or online, within the past year. Of the 326 who consented to participate, 42 who reported defaming the same person on 11 or more occasions were analyzed.
Based on the Social Information Processing Model, structual equation modeling was conducted with aggressive intent during defamation as the outcome variable, and offenders' perception of the victim's hostility, justification of aggression, anger, and parasocial relationship as explanatory variables. Results indicated that parasocial relationships directly increased aggressive intent but also indirectly suppressed it by reducing anger. Anger promoted aggressive intent by increasing justification. Both parasocial relationships and anger increased perceived hostility, but perceived hostility did not significantly predict aggressive intent.
These findings suggest that parasocial relationships both facilitate and inhibit online defamation, underscoring the complex psychological mechanisms underlying online aggression and contributing to the development of intervention strategies.