[Ias-public] The Institute for Analytical Sociology Seminar: Amalia Alvarez Benjumea, November 30, 14:30CET, KO301 & online on Zoom

[Madelene Töpfer]

The Institute for Analytical Sociology Seminar

Venue: KO301 & Online on Zoom (see Zoom link in the end of the email)


Thursday, November 30 @14:30CET

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Punishing Hate: An Experiment on Counterspeech

Amalia Alvarez-Benjumea
Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP-CSIC), Madrid



Abstract:
Counterspeech is a direct response to hate speech that seeks to undermine it. It is a form of punishment because it enforces the norm against hateful discourses. Counterspeech reduces the use of hate speech on online platforms and decreases support for "haters" in observers. For this strategy to work, however, counterspeech has to occur sufficiently often. In a series of experiments, I investigate how often observers punish online hate speech, test interventions to increase the frequency of punishment, and explore the micro-mechanisms that explain the effects.

The rate of spontaneous counterspeech in the experiment is less than 6%. Participants with a positive attitude toward the target of hate were more likely to use counterspeech, but no other specific variables had an effect. In a second experiment, we test different interventions to increase the willingness to punish online hate speech. First, I look at whether participants are more likely to respond to hateful messages with counterspeech when they can observe earlier participants have done so. Second, we test whether informing participants of the inappropriateness of using hate before participating in an online platform, thus increasing the salience of the norm, would increase their willingness to sanction such behavior. I find that exposure to counterspeech by anonymous others strongly encourages participants to act against hate. However, increasing the salience of the norm does not affect the number of sanctions. Lastly, I measure the effects on beliefs at the normative and meta-normative levels to explore the mechanisms that drive the findings in experiment two. The results show that sanctioning behavior is contagious: when participants could observe previous sanctions, they were more likely to follow suit. This increase in punishment is associated with a heightened perception of the inappropriateness of hate speech, with no changes in the acceptability of imposing sanctions.


Join Zoom Meeting
https://liu-se.zoom.us/j/65535789369
Meeting ID: 655 3578 9369


Best regards
Madelene Töpfer
Coordinator
[Linköping University]
Institute for Analytical Sociology
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