Argues that social media's mediation of social relations fosters necrophilous personality types, which in turn are attracted to populism, authoritarian leaders, and political violence.
Abstract
A significant contributor to the rise in populism and authoritarianism has been the alteration in modes of interpersonal relations brought about by the increasing mediation of social relations by social media scaffolds. Using 4E cognition’s concept of niche construction and Erich Fromm’s social psychology we argue that social media functions to form and gratify necrophilous personality types attracted to populism, authoritarian leaders and political violence.