About Us
Who we are
Respect Pays is a newly-formed organization that aims to nudge online and social media communities away from negativity and hate speech to create comfortable, engaging virtual spaces where the general public can discuss controversial topics with respect and civility. By encouraging polite digital interactions, our work will make the internet a safer place to host constructive communications and provide opportunities for identifying acceptable compromises.
What we do
Respect Pays will intervene in online spaces to insert civil discourse and perform basic and applied research on the topic of civility in online spaces. Our primary planned activity will be to provide micro-donations to selected charities and micropayments to contributors for making respectful online comments, with the expectation that these comments will encourage others to engage in more respectful communications. We will not tell contributors what to say or support one opinion or perspective over another; rather, we will only require that contributors state their own opinions using civil and respectful language.
The theory behind our work
Respect Pays’ mission is to restore the promise of the internet as a forum for civil discussion. Social science research suggests that seeing civil, online comments makes people more likely to post civil comments, and less likely to post uncivil comments. The presence of polite comments also increases the likelihood of longer engagements between people. Our work will investigate the mechanics of how to encourage respectful online interactions and how to measure the effects of civil comments on the quality of discussion and engagement in online spaces.
OUR TEAM
Brian Colder
Dr. Brian Colder is a cognitive neuroscientist and the founder of Respect Pays. As a consultant, he uses this unique background to develop methods to optimize human behavior and performance. He provides expertise to government agencies in human factors engineering projects in areas such as physical and mental performance and injury prevention. He is a test and evaluation expert and has advised on research projects funded by Advanced Research Project Agencies for the Defense Department (DARPA) and Intelligence Community (IARPA). Brian received earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a B.Sc. in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology.
Charles Worrell
Dr. Charles Worrell is a systems engineer who leads teams in the development of computer models to detect and evaluate risk. Much of his recent work is in fraud and crime detection and prevention for government agencies. He was the principal inventor for the patented (DAP-E) method for predicting user acceptance of new systems. In addition to his multiple technical certifications, he also conducted shipboard operations around the world as an officer in the US Navy. Charles earned his Ph.D. in Information Technology from George Mason University and holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a native of Harlem in New York City.