Frameless Folk Psychology

In this paper, I will argue that the rise in hostility and polarization on social media is explainable by taking into account a radical difference between online and face-toface interaction. In everyday offline environments, socially shared and context-dependent norms frame the understanding of other people’s minds based on their behavior. I will argue that, on social media platforms, social cognition is distorted thanks to two deliberate design choices that are a means for financial gain for the platform’s designers: namely, the lack of socially shared norms on these platforms (entailed by what is known as context collapse) and their interfaces’ extreme user- centeredness. I will argue that such design features not only cause frustration in the understanding of others but encourage testimonial injustice in interaction.