Abstract

Online hate messaging is a pervasive issue plaguing the well-being of social media users. This research empirically investigates a novel theory positing that online hate may be driven primarily by the pursuit of social approval rather than a direct desire to harm the targets. Results show that toxicity is homophilous in users' social networks and that a user's propensity for hostility can be predicted by their social networks. We also illustrate how receiving greater or fewer social engagements in the form of likes, retweets, quotes, and replies affects a user's subsequent toxicity. We establish a clear connection between receiving social approval signals and increases in subsequent toxicity. Being retweeted plays a particularly prominent role in escalating toxicity. Results also show that not receiving expected levels of social approval leads to decreased toxicity. We discuss the important implications of our research and opportunities to combat online hate.

Metadata

publication

arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.07779, 2024

year

2024

publication date

2024

authors

Julie Jiang, Luca Luceri, Joseph B Walther, Emilio Ferrara

link

https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.07779

resource_link

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.07779

journal

arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.07779