r/AmItheAsshole
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{lowercase title}}
{{Short description|Reddit forum for judgement of behavior}}
{{redirect|AITA||Aita (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox website
| name = r/AmItheAsshole
| logo = AmItheAsshole.png
| logo_caption =
| url = {{URL|https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole}}
| users = 24 million members {{nowrap|({{As of|2025|03|10|lc=y}})}}
| type = Subreddit
| language = English
| launched = {{start date and age|2013|6|8}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/am-i-the-asshole-aita-reddit-history/|title=How 'Am I the Asshole?' became the internet's most profound query|last=Gordon|first=Ilana|date=9 August 2019|work=The Daily Dot|access-date=30 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109031653/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/am-i-the-asshole-aita-reddit-history/|archive-date=9 January 2021|url-status=live}}
| creator = Marc Beaulac{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/21/trolls-internet-cartoons-hate-her-reddit|title=Can trolling ever be charming – or are 'good' trolls still a nuisance?|last=Matei|first=Adrienne|date=21 May 2020|work=The Guardian|access-date=30 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209184220/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/21/trolls-internet-cartoons-hate-her-reddit|archive-date=9 December 2020|url-status=live}}
}}
r/AmItheAsshole, abbreviated as AITA, is a subreddit where users post about their real-world interpersonal conflicts and receive judgement from fellow redditors. The subreddit allows users to solicit and express opinions about the appropriateness of the actions of people in specific scenarios{{snd}} especially the actions of the person reporting about the situation.
History
The subreddit was created in 2013 by photographer and dog rescuer Marc Beaulac to determine if he had been inappropriately mansplaining in a debate with female coworkers about the temperature of their office.{{Cite web |last=Danovich |first=Tove K. |date=7 October 2020 |title=Can "Am I the Asshole?" Actually Help Make People Better? |url=https://www.theringer.com/2020/10/7/21503068/am-i-the-asshole-reddit-2020 |access-date=26 April 2022 |website=The Ringer |language=en}} The subreddit gained popularity in of 2018. By July 2019, it had 1 million members, which it dubs "potential assholes". A Twitter account used to repost a curated selection of the posts, until it stopped doing so on 5 January 2023.{{Cite web |title=Am I the Asshole? (AITA_online) / Twitter |url=https://twitter.com/aita_online |access-date=26 April 2022 |website=Twitter |language=en}}
r/AmItheAsshole is based around the concept of posting situations from users' personal lives for judgement. Any user (typically from a single-use account referred to as a throwaway) can make a post, beginning with "AITA", asking if they're an asshole for what they did in a situation they were involved in. Other users can judge them with the ratings of YTA (you're the asshole), NTA (not the asshole), NAH (no assholes here), or ESH (everyone sucks here). An example of the conundrums posted is "AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?" As of October 2020, the subreddit receives about 800 scenarios per day.{{Cite news |last=Hunt |first=Elle |date=22 October 2020 |title=AITA? How a Reddit forum posed the defining question of our age |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/22/aita-how-a-reddit-forum-posed-the-defining-question-of-our-age |url-status=live |access-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129075129/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/22/aita-how-a-reddit-forum-posed-the-defining-question-of-our-age |archive-date=29 January 2021}}
Princeton University ethicist Eleanor Gordon-Smith said to The Guardian, "There's something almost thrilling about peeking behind the curtain into other people’s lives, hearing their weird thoughts – what they think deep down of their partners, children, friends."
Some posts, such as the December 2021 thread about an orange tabby named Jorts, are shared on other social media platforms, eg Twitter.{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Kathleen |title=Reading Reddit Drama Helps Some People Leave Bad Relationships |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/reading-reddit-relationships-amitheasshole-aita-helps-some-leave-bad-relationships/ |website=Vice |access-date=29 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129072558/https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3z5av/reading-reddit-relationships-amitheasshole-aita-helps-some-leave-bad-relationships |archive-date=29 November 2020 |date=27 July 2020 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Yip |first=Waiyee |title=How a fluffy orange cat named Jorts stole the internet's heart and became the pro-labor icon 2022 didn't know it needed |url=https://www.insider.com/jorts-jean-reddit-orange-cat-became-pro-labor-icon-twitter-2022-3 |access-date=26 April 2022 |website=Insider |language=en-US}}
In 2023, a group of researchers published a preprint study that used AI to analyze and categorize 369,161 posts and 11 million comments from the subreddit to understand the role of relational obligations in moral dilemmas.{{cite news |last1=Samuel |first1=Sigal |title=Philosophers are studying Reddit's 'Am I the Asshole?'|url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24145761/reddit-am-i-the-asshole-moral-philosophy |access-date=4 May 2024 |work=Vox |publisher=Vox Media, LLC |date=1 May 2024}}{{cite journal |last1=Yudkin |first1=Daniel |last2=Goodwin |first2=Geoffrey P. |last3=Reece |first3=Andrew |last4=Gray |first4=Kurt |last5=Bhatia |first5=Sudeep |title=A Large-Scale Investigation of Everyday Moral Dilemmas |journal=Osf.io |doi=10.31234/osf.io/5pcew |url=https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5pcew |access-date=4 May 2024|doi-access=free }}
References
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External links
- {{Official website|https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/}}
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