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Social media and online hate.

Joseph B Walther¹

¹Dept. of Communication/Center for Information Technology and Society, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA.

Current Opinion in Psychology

|February 14, 2022

Summary

Online hate messages are driven by social approval, not just individual traits. Individuals create hateful content to gain rewards like friendship and social support from peers, reinforcing their prejudices.

Area of Science:

Social Psychology
Online Communication
Hate Speech Analysis

Background:

Social media platforms exhibit high levels of hate messages, posing risks to individuals and groups.
Traditional research on online hate focuses on perpetrator characteristics, overlooking social dynamics.
Existing approaches fail to account for the role of social approval and peer dynamics in perpetuating online animosity.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose and support a social approval-based theory of online hate.
To investigate how social media dynamics influence the generation of hate messages.
To explore the role of peer reward and social support in reinforcing prejudice.

Main Methods:

Theoretical analysis integrating social psychology principles with online behavior.

Keywords:

Approval-seeking Online hate Peer support Racism Social media

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Review of recent research on related phenomena such as moral grandstanding and political derision.

Examination of how social media facilitates peer-based validation for antagonistic behavior.

Main Results:

Online hate can be understood as a mechanism for gaining social rewards and approval from like-minded individuals.
Antagonism towards mutually disliked targets serves as a basis for forming social bonds and receiving peer support.
This process enhances perpetrators' well-being and simultaneously deepens their existing prejudices.

Conclusions:

A social approval framework offers a novel perspective on understanding and addressing online hate.
Interventions should consider the social and interpersonal motivators driving hate speech on social media.
Future research should further explore the interplay between social dynamics and prejudice reinforcement in online environments.