My take-away from this study was that the folks who want to be good actors in the community are encourage by updings, and will write better posts. The bad actors are already somewhere down the sociopath line, and downdings will bolster martyrdom syndromes or just prove to the troll that he’s hitting everyone’s buttons. So, yes, the downdings encourage bad behavior on the part of people who started as bad actors.

I think Kilgore Trout on this board fit that pattern pretty well.

(And as pointed out: banning people and proper moderation is the only thing that actually works. The downdings aren’t a problem here.)