Digital Self-Harm: Online Vignette Experiment

Self-harm (SH) traditionally means firsthand, deliberate injury of one’s physical body. Digital self-harm (DiSH) is an umbrella term and includes digital communication about physical SH as well as different forms of harming one’s online appearance. Examples are sharing embarrassing information about oneself (e.g., rumors, nudes), true or fictitious, in spaces where one expects negative social feedback. A Stimulation perspective posits that exposure to violent online messages will stimulate more aggression. This would suggest that online exposure to SH will reinforce physical SH. Social validation and peer reinforcement could be encouraging factors. A Displacement perspective would predict that online engagement with SH substitutes and thereby reduces physical SH. Engaging with SH representations may provide an emotional outlet and thereby reduce the urge to physically self-harm. We test if exposure to different kinds of SH stimulate or displace the urge to physically SH. In an experiment with 4 conditions, 136 self-harming people (recruited from online forums) are assigned to read a vignette story of (a) secretive firsthand physical self-harm, (b) disclosed firsthand physical self-harm shared online, (c) indirect self-harm via online aggressors, or (d) fictitious online victimization. As outcomes, we measure affective reactions and urge to self-harm, as well as the protagonists’ estimated urge to self-harm. We now have ethical approval; data collection starts in August.