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Reactions to online hate speech and counter speech ‐ Results from a pilot study using experience sampling

Anja Schultze-Krumbholz, TU Berlin; Hanna Lehmkuhl, TU Berlin; Mario Schimanski, TU Berlin

Online hate speech (HS) refers to derogatory, insulting or threatening expressions (comments, memes, etc.) about or the incitement of violence towards other persons based on (assigned) group characteristics. One possibility to deal with HS is counter speech (CS), i.e. countering HS with expressions such as defending targets of HS, presenting facts, identifying HS as such, humorous replies or attacking perpetrators of HS themselves. However, results on the effectiveness of CS are mixed. In the present pilot study, apart from testing the experience sampling method, we wanted to examine which personal (age, gender, media-based empathy, belonging to the victimized group) and situational characteristics (intensity of HS, type of HS, target group of HS) predicted feelings of concern, assessment of CS as appropriate, and a positive effect of CS. The sample consisted of 35 university students (48.6% female, 45.7% male, 2.9% diverse) between 22 and 48 years old (M 29.43, SD 5.82), who participated over 7 days with 3 daily assessments, theoretically resulting in 735 datapoints in total. 248 datapoints were not answered, of the remaining 487 datapoints, participants reported online HS on 62 occasions (12.7%). Stepwise hierarchical regression analyses (with SE correction) showed that low media involvement, high cognitive media-based empathy, and religion as target of HS predicted higher feelings of concern. Assessment of CS as appropriate was predicted by feelings of concern, cognitive media-based empathy and religion as target. Participants felt better after witnessing CS when it was assessed as appropriate and the target was the religion of a person. Results will be discussed regarding their relevance for further research and practice.

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