Prosocial vs. Trolling Communities on Facebook: An Information Exchange, Message Interactivity, and Participant Agreement Study of Individual-Group Behaviors

• In Event: Information Processing and Technology

Abstract

This study systematically compared the communicative behaviors within and between a prosocial and a trolling community on Facebook. Messages posted on the community “Walls” were analyzed based on the following conceptual frameworks – 1) types of information exchange behaviors, 2) level of message contingent interactivity, and 3) proportion of agreement and disagreement. Findings revealed that participants in a prosocial community tended to exchange emotionally supportive messages and showed greater level of reciprocity and agreement. That is not to say that a trolling group exists in disharmony. On the contrary, findings revealed that participants of a trolling community tended to agree more with one another than disagree. Findings extend prior studies that had largely examined trolling as an individual activity, and showed that at the group level, a trolling community can instead be more collaborative than acrimonious. Implications of findings in the context of online communities and future research are discussed.

Keywords: Online community; Prosocial; Trolling; Content analysis; Information exchange; Message interactivity; Facebook

Authors

• Elmie Nekmat

• Kellyn Lee, Singapore Management U