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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22503/inftars.XXIII.2023.2.8
Language: en
Title: Frameless Folk Psychology
Subtitle: How Online Context Collapse and User-Centeredness Distort Social Cognition and Nudge Hostility and Epistemic Injustice
Abstract: In this paper, I will argue that the rise in hostility and polarization on social media is explainable by taking into account a radical difference between online and face-toface interaction. In everyday offline environments, socially shared and context-dependent norms frame the understanding of other people’s minds based on their behavior. I will argue that, on social media platforms, social cognition is distorted thanks to two deliberate design choices that are a means for financial gain for the platform’s designers: namely, the lack of socially shared norms on these platforms (entailed by what is known as context collapse) and their interfaces’ extreme user- centeredness. I will argue that such design features not only cause frustration in the understanding of others but encourage testimonial injustice in interaction.
Keywords: online hostility, social networking sites, social cognition, epistemic injustice, reactive attitudes