Workshop Program

Overall Goal: Our goal for this session is to begin synthesizing the group's collective knowledge to work toward a theoretical framework for proactive interventions. We will focus on the first major objective of the workshop: to identify common and context-specific antecedents (dispositions, situations, technological affordances) of toxicity. 

We will facilitate an interactive session that includes brief introductions, sharing antecedents, an affinity mapping exercise, and a walkabout for cross-pollination of ideas. 

Overall Goal: Our objective for this session is to guide participants from identifying individual factors to synthesizing them into a preliminary model. We will lead a discussion on the complex interactions between the antecedents of toxicity and conclude by collaboratively outlining a research agenda.

Participants will work in small groups to map a plausible pathway that leads to a specific toxic behaviour (e.g., dogpiling on social media, harassment in social VR, trolling in video games). Groups will present their pathways and a potential approach to validate it. We will conclude with a collective agenda for building, testing, and refining the development of models and theories that can advance the field.