ProSocial and AntiSocial (This page is live) Behaviour in Digital Worlds: a model based approach

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This project will explore the contribution that a model based approach can make to understanding the emergence of bothprosocialand antisocialbehaviour in digital worlds. It will draw on research in the psychology of group processes andsocial influence to develop and test models that explore the dynamics of the escalation or deescalationof aggression. Inparticular it will focus on phenomena like trolling, cyberbullyingand 'digitalantism'. It will examine the role that 'thirdparties' play in the perpetuation of negative behaviours, but also the promotion of positive behaviours in digital encounters.In this project you will learn about analysing temporal sequences in digital data. We will ask if it is important to know notonly how people might act, but also when they act, if we want to understand the trajectory of aggression online. We willexplore whether particular temporal patterns of third party responses to aggression predict prosocialor antisocialoutcomes. The project will build on existing work in the research group that has modelled aggressive interactions in publicspaces captured on CCTV cameras.The project would suit either a candidate with a psychology/animal behaviour background interested in the application of amodel based approach to understanding social behaviour - or a candidate with a computer science/mathematicsbackground interested in social psychological phenomena.