Life is cheap on the internet, because people feel far removed (and/or “above it”). Social media “engagement” algorithms divide and isolate people from each other.

(I think as far as Lemmy is concerned, it’s just spillover / remnant behaviors from that stuff. There’s no engagement algorithm here other than what we bring in ourselves.)

Here are a some studies on it from people a lot smarter than me.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/…/full

firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/…/10076

scholars.org/…/countering-online-toxicity-and-hat…

link.springer.com/article/…/s10734-021-00787-4

This one looks at the “why” question from a political POV:

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/…/7405434?lo…