Arlin Cuncic, MA, lists for VeryWell Mind more reasons why comments sections get so toxic:
Mob mentality. Sometimes we might not even feel it, but as humans, we have a tendency to be influenced by those around us. If we see other people posting nasty stuff under a social media post, our monkey brains activate, and we follow suit.
Online disinhibition effect. We might think of online spaces as "not real," thus we allow ourselves to be mean and nasty. We don't see the face of the person who we're insulting and how that makes them feel in the moment, so, we don't feel as bad about it as we would if we told them the same things in person.
Mean comments depend on the platform. On some platforms, we allow ourselves to be nastier than on others. For example, researchers have found that YouTube has the highest number of insults and rude comments compared to other social media sites.
Personalities also matter. Those same researchers claim that mean commenters are actually a minority online, it's just that their voices tend to be the loudest. There are also some common demographic factors: mean commenters tend to be male, have a lower education, and lower income.
