The American psychologist Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory puts forward the core concept of "self-realization". He believes that people's basic needs are divided into different levels from low to high, including physiological needs, security needs, belonging and love needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. It can be seen that the demand for self-realization is the highest level of human needs, the highest realm of life pursuit, and the pursuit of individuals to maximize their potential and constantly surpass themselves to realize the all-round development of their personalities. Each of us hopes to realize our wishes and fully embody our values and abilities. Because the real society is relatively complex, full of variables and increasingly fierce competition, it is easy to be challenged and hit by various difficulties, so it is not easy to realize self-worth in it. However, in the virtual cyberspace, netizens can avoid all kinds of difficulties in the real society when communicating, so as to meet their psychological needs of pursuing self-realization. They bring the demand that the real world can't realize to the network. Here, they can feel their potential ability, experience the happiness of network communication and taste the sense of accomplishment recognized by netizens. It is also the satisfaction of the highest psychological needs that inspires netizens to participate in various social events and put forward their own views, opinions and suggestions.
Second, the psychology of curiosity and inquiry.
Curiosity is the inherent driving force of human beings, which refers to the mentality of having a strong desire to understand the unknown in order to seek excitement. People have an instinct to understand and explore new things or phenomena, which is an intrinsic psychological motivation of behavior. Curiosity is caused by external stimuli, so its strength is also related to the novelty and complexity of external stimuli. The more novel and complex the stimulus, the stronger the individual's curiosity. In the 1970s, John Bogart, editor-in-chief of The New York Sun, famously said, "Dog bites dog is not news, but man bites dog is news", which fully demonstrated people's curiosity about their unknown information. Almost everyone has the psychological characteristics of being curious about new things or phenomena. Compared with the real world, the online world is a brand-new world, but also a virtual world. It is this virtuality that arouses people's curiosity to the greatest extent. Under the influence of curiosity and voyeurism, netizens find the real information completely related to the parties in the event through various information in the process of forming online public opinion.
Third, herd mentality.
In the field of psychology, conformity refers to the phenomenon that the individual's ideas and behaviors change in the same direction as the majority because of the guidance or pressure of the group. The "herd mentality" of netizens refers to the "herd mentality" shown by netizens when they participate in various activities. Some netizens didn't know the hot event discussed by online public opinion for some time at first, but when he found that other netizens were discussing the event, he would also consult, understand and discuss it. Some netizens already know about it, but when he finds that his views are inconsistent with those of other netizens, he will change his words and deeds about it because of herd mentality. In the luxury car incident of female procurator-general in poverty-stricken counties in Inner Mongolia, negative public opinion has always occupied the mainstream. Once netizens express different views from the group, they immediately attract many netizens' attacks. Under this group pressure, the original tendency of group members has been further strengthened.
Fourth, the psychology of venting emotions.
According to sigmund freud's point of view, when people accumulate psychological energy, they always look for an outlet to vent, and this outlet will bring people a sense of emotional liberation. In today's increasingly fierce market competition, people's life pressure is increasing, and people urgently need to release their psychological pressure and hope and desire for the future. However, the real society has not provided them with enough ways and opportunities. Online forums, blogs and other online public opinion positions only provide them with a space to vent their emotions. Except for minors and a few people, most netizens in real society have strong self-control, but in the Internet, there may be problems of self-control. This is mainly due to the influence of network virtuality, their mood is adjusted to an excited state, and their reason is suppressed. On moral issues, the mentality of netizens will also change, self-discipline psychology may decline, and laissez-faire psychology is easy to expand. It can be seen that the network is a very suitable vent space. Here, netizens don't have to care about anyone or anything. They can quietly hide themselves in the real world and vent their feelings.