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Are people with lower social status more likely to post aggressive content online? And if yes, can this be explained by people's political views? Some previous attempts to approach these questions have been insufficiently comprehensive and methodologically sound. This study therefore expands the existing literature on online aggression with both a sociologically grounded, theoretical model of the interplay of social and political determinants and an innovative empirical data triangulation design. The study matches behavioral data from a social media platform with survey data providing extensive social and political information about users. Findings suggest that online aggression is more likely among users with an ascribed social status that is associated with power claims (male gender, older age, and national citizenship) and with a disadvantaged achieved social status (lower education, lower incomes, unemployment, and rural residence). Left–right leaning, populism, and trust in institutions can explain between 20 and 40 percent of these structural effects. The results help tailor measures that counter online aggression to specific risk groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actors of public interest today have to fear the adverse impact that stems from social media platforms. Any controversial behavior may promptly trigger temporal, but potentially devastating storms of emotional and aggressive outrage, so called online firestorms. Popular targets of online firestorms are companies, politicians, celebrities, media, academics and many more. This article introduces social norm theory to understand online aggression in a social-political online setting, challenging the popular assumption that online anonymity is one of the principle factors that promotes aggression. We underpin this social norm view by analyzing a major social media platform concerned with public affairs over a period of three years entailing 532,197 comments on 1,612 online petitions. Results show that in the context of online firestorms, non-anonymous individuals are more aggressive compared to anonymous individuals. This effect is reinforced if selective incentives are present and if aggressors are intrinsically motivated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]