BERLIN: Play the ball, not the man: the old saying, telling footballers to eschew cynical fouling, has been reapplied as a warning against personal attacks or ad hominems for almost as long as it has been used with reference to the so-called Beautiful Game.

Anyone who does a quick scroll through social media, be that X or Facebook, is likely to know already that despite the prevalence of "be kind" mantras, many people – particularly those who do not reveal their identity – not only ignore conventions against attacking people over ideas, they seem to have no other way of engaging, be that with peers or with comments or news they do not like.

"Ad hominem attacks are the most common way users confront content they perceive as wrong in comment sections beneath news videos," according to researchers from Cornell University and the University of Missouri. They found over 40% of comments as "relying on reputation-based insults to oppose earlier replies."

Published in the science journal PLOS One, the research was based on analysing over 8,000 remarks on X, formerly Twitter, and YouTube. 

While the team detected a "range of discursive tactics" aimed at objecting to content, the use of ad hominems was the most common and the aim in many cases seemed to be to shut down debate.

The use of slurs and disparaging remarks – or "deterrent speech" and "nonaccommodative communication" unrelated to the substantive matter being discussed was sometimes done to try to put a stop to what was being said.

And while not as prevalent as personal attacks, the use of "provocative" and "non-topical" interventions – or "trolling" – is another time-worn tactic used to disrupt discussions and divert or distract perceived opponents from their train of thought, the team found.

Other methods used to try to shut down debate included physical threats, though these were found in only around 3% of cases, and efforts to have posts removed or hidden. – dpa