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Motives of Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Victims of Online Hate Speech: Results from a National Sample of Internet Users in Germany

Mohseni Rohangis, TU Ilmenau; Nicola Döring, TU Ilmenau

Background: Online Hate Speech (OHS) is a prevalent societal problem. Research addressing the motives behind it often focuses on the perpetrators while ignoring bystanders and victims. In this study, we employed the Action-Theoretical Model of Online Hate Speech (ATMOHS) that incorporates environmental, situational and personal factors of perpetrators, bystanders, and victims to address motives of all three involved groups. As there exists no motive to become a victim, the model builds upon the theory of learned helplessness and assumes undeservingness (the assumption of deserving bad things happening to oneself) to be a victim motive. Undeservingness could explain why OHS victims do not fight back or get victimized repeatedly. Methods: OHS motives were measured in a pre-registered online survey among a national quota sample of Internet users in Germany (N 1,791; Mage 44.1, 48.3% women). Perpetrators' motives were measured with the Aggressive Motives Scale (Anderson & Murphy, 2003) in form of competition, control, justice, image (all single item measures), punishment (? .77), and retribution (? .79). Bystanders' motives were measured with the Transformational Leadership Inventory (Heinitz & Rowold, 2007) in form of aiming to be a role model for others (? .75). Victims' motives were measured with the Self-Defeating Interpersonal Style Scale (Atkinson, 2017) in form of perceived undeservingness (? .75). Results: Results partially supported ATMOHS and showed that retribution was an important motive on the perpetrators' side, while aiming to be a role model for others was an important motive on the active victim supporting bystanders' side. However, it could not be confirmed that undeservingness was an important motive on the victims' side. Conclusion: In practice, prevention programs are encouraged to focus on retribution as a relevant motive for OHS perpetration, and on being a role model for others as a relevant motive for becoming an active bystander.

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