Anonymous online attacks cause victims lasting social apprehension with few refuges

Evidence

The unpredictability and uncontrollability of such threats arouse generalized anxiety (Bandura, 1986; Miller, 1981). Not knowing the identity of one’s attacker leaves the victim in a heightened state of apprehension about who is friend and who is foe. Victims can, of course, avoid the postings, but if the disparaging online portrayals turn peers against them, they have few places of refuge. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 296

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to your One Square Inch of Silence work on harassment environments — here the harm vector is unnamed threat rather than noise.