Abstract
AbstractAntisocial behavior can be contagious, spreading from individual to individual and rippling through social networks. Moreover, it can spread not only through third-party influence from observation, just like innovations or individual behavior do, but also through direct experience, via “pay-it-forward” retaliation. Here, we distinguish between the effects of observation and victimization for the contagion of antisocial behavior by analyzing large-scale digital trace data. We study the spread of cheating in more than a million matches of an online multiplayer first-person shooter game, in which up to 100 players compete individually or in teams against strangers. We identify event sequences in which a player who observes or is killed by a certain number of cheaters starts cheating and evaluate the extent to which these sequences would appear if we preserve the team and interaction structure but assume alternative gameplay scenarios. The results reveal that social contagion is only likely to exist for those who both observe and experience cheating, suggesting that third-party influence and “pay-it-forward” reciprocity interact positively. In addition, the effect is present only for those who both observe and experience more than once, suggesting that cheating is more likely to spread after repeated or multi-source exposure. Approaching online games as models of social systems, we use the findings to discuss strategies for targeted interventions to stem the spread of cheating and antisocial behavior more generally in online communities, schools, organizations, and sports.
Highlights
We, humans, are largely a product of our natural and social environment
The ranking method is complex but overall rank improves when the player places higher in a match, and to a lower extent, when the player achieves more kills. When it comes to cheating, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is similar to other popular online first-person shooter games: the use of cheating tools is common, problematic, and penalized
We study the adoption of cheating in the online game PUBG in order to investigate whether antisocial behavior spreads among strangers via observation and victimization
Summary
Humans, are largely a product of our natural and social environment. Our bodies consist of at least as many foreign bacterial cells as our own (Sender et al, 2016). The idea is that when witnessing antisocial behavior by others, the observer may change their estimation of the likelihood of being caught or change their understanding of the social norms related to that behavior (Cialdini et al, 1990; Gino et al, 2009). Antisocial behavior may spread through victimization (Tsvetkova & Macy, 2015). This study extends research on the contagion of antisocial behavior by empirically distinguishing between the effects of observation and victimization with observational data. The contagion of antisocial behavior implies that a single act of misbehavior has the potential to trigger a chain reaction that reaches far beyond the original initiator To prevent this from happening, we need to understand when to intervene, whom to target, and how. This knowledge will aid policy makers, managers, administrators, and educators develop effective strategies to reduce the incidence and normative acceptance of antisocial behavior and ensure functional and sustainable organizations and communities
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