Project DANCE: Dark Nerd Communities

Overview

• Title: Dark Nerd Communities: A multi-method exploration of toxic degradation in the adolescent technosphere

• Funding: European Research Council (ERC)

• ERC Grant agreement ID: 101200945

• Funding period: 1 March 2026 - 28 February 2031

• PI: Prof. Thorsten Quandt

Online nerd communities have long been regarded as relatively harmless spaces centered on shared interests in games, technology, and fandom. In recent years, however, parts of these communities have changed considerably. What were once niche environments have, in some cases, developed into spaces marked by exclusion, misogyny, and extremist views.

The ERC project DANCE investigates how and why certain online nerd communities evolve into toxic environments. Rather than focusing on isolated extreme events, the project examines gradual transformation processes and everyday communicative dynamics through which problematic patterns emerge, stabilize, and intensify within specific communities over time.

Methodologically, the project combines different perspectives to capture both individual experiences and structural conditions. It integrates qualitative insights into community practices and meanings with quantitative and computational analyses of communication and interaction patterns in digital environments. This mixed approach allows DANCE to conceptualize toxic developments as social and communicative processes shaped by the interplay of actors, groups, and platforms.

By highlighting the diversity of nerd communities and identifying key mechanisms behind toxic dynamics, the project aims to contribute to a better understanding of harmful developments in digital cultures and to explore possible points of intervention.

DANCE is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant and conducted at the Online Communication Lab at the University of Münster (Department of Communication).