Citation

Su S, Zhang J, Xia LX. Curr. Psychol. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12144-022-03530-z

PMID

35990206

PMCID

PMC9382011

Abstract

Aggressive collective action online has many negative impacts on the online environment and can even lead to political violence or social panic in the offline world. Although the effect of relative deprivation on aggression toward the compared object is well known, the influence of relative deprivation on aggressive collective action online toward deprivation-related provocateurs within the group has been ignored. Thus, this study attempted to explore the effect, as well as the mediating mechanism underlying it. We found that group relative deprivation manipulated by an employment problem scenario (with the triggering event as a covariable) can enhance aggressive collective action online toward deprivation-related provocateurs within the group, with hostile feelings mediating the effect. These results support and develop the relative deprivation theory, frustration-aggression theory, stress and coping theory, and deepen the understanding of the relationship between relative deprivation and aggression. The findings also suggest that colleges should focus more on graduate employment problems and decreasing the relative deprivation experienced by undergraduate students in efforts to prevent aggressive collective action online.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggressive collective action online; Deprivation-related provocateurs within the group; Group relative deprivation; Hostile feelings