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Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults

The Internet, specifically social media, is among the most common settings where young people encounter hate speech. Understanding their attitudes toward the phenomenon is crucial for combatting it because acceptance of such content could contribute to furthering the spread of hate speech as well as...

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Autores principales: Celuch, Magdalena, Oksanen, Atte, Räsänen, Pekka, Costello, Matthew, Blaya, Catherine, Zych, Izabela, Llorent, Vicente J., Reichelmann, Ashley, Hawdon, James
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8744966/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35010794
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010534
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author Celuch, Magdalena
Oksanen, Atte
Räsänen, Pekka
Costello, Matthew
Blaya, Catherine
Zych, Izabela
Llorent, Vicente J.
Reichelmann, Ashley
Hawdon, James
author_facet Celuch, Magdalena
Oksanen, Atte
Räsänen, Pekka
Costello, Matthew
Blaya, Catherine
Zych, Izabela
Llorent, Vicente J.
Reichelmann, Ashley
Hawdon, James
author_sort Celuch, Magdalena
collection PubMed
description The Internet, specifically social media, is among the most common settings where young people encounter hate speech. Understanding their attitudes toward the phenomenon is crucial for combatting it because acceptance of such content could contribute to furthering the spread of hate speech as well as ideology contamination. The present study, theoretically grounded in the General Aggression Model (GAM), investigates factors associated with online hate acceptance among young adults. We collected survey data from participants aged 18–26 from six countries: Finland (n = 483), France (n = 907), Poland (n = 738), Spain (n = 739), the United Kingdom (n = 959), and the United States (n = 1052). Results based on linear regression modeling showed that acceptance of online hate was strongly associated with acceptance of violence in all samples. In addition, participants who admitted to producing online hate reported higher levels of acceptance of it. Moreover, association with social dominance orientation was found in most of the samples. Other sample-specific significant factors included participants’ experiences with the Internet and online hate, as well as empathy and institutional trust levels. Significant differences in online hate acceptance levels and the strength of its connections to individual factors were found between the countries. These results provide important insights into the phenomenon, demonstrating that online hate acceptance is part of a larger belief system and is influenced by cultural background, and, therefore, it cannot be analyzed or combatted in isolation from these factors.
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spelling pubmed-87449662022-01-11 Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults Celuch, Magdalena Oksanen, Atte Räsänen, Pekka Costello, Matthew Blaya, Catherine Zych, Izabela Llorent, Vicente J. Reichelmann, Ashley Hawdon, James Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The Internet, specifically social media, is among the most common settings where young people encounter hate speech. Understanding their attitudes toward the phenomenon is crucial for combatting it because acceptance of such content could contribute to furthering the spread of hate speech as well as ideology contamination. The present study, theoretically grounded in the General Aggression Model (GAM), investigates factors associated with online hate acceptance among young adults. We collected survey data from participants aged 18–26 from six countries: Finland (n = 483), France (n = 907), Poland (n = 738), Spain (n = 739), the United Kingdom (n = 959), and the United States (n = 1052). Results based on linear regression modeling showed that acceptance of online hate was strongly associated with acceptance of violence in all samples. In addition, participants who admitted to producing online hate reported higher levels of acceptance of it. Moreover, association with social dominance orientation was found in most of the samples. Other sample-specific significant factors included participants’ experiences with the Internet and online hate, as well as empathy and institutional trust levels. Significant differences in online hate acceptance levels and the strength of its connections to individual factors were found between the countries. These results provide important insights into the phenomenon, demonstrating that online hate acceptance is part of a larger belief system and is influenced by cultural background, and, therefore, it cannot be analyzed or combatted in isolation from these factors. MDPI 2022-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8744966/ /pubmed/35010794 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010534 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Celuch, Magdalena
Oksanen, Atte
Räsänen, Pekka
Costello, Matthew
Blaya, Catherine
Zych, Izabela
Llorent, Vicente J.
Reichelmann, Ashley
Hawdon, James
Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults
title Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults
title_full Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults
title_fullStr Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults
title_full_unstemmed Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults
title_short Factors Associated with Online Hate Acceptance: A Cross-National Six-Country Study among Young Adults
title_sort factors associated with online hate acceptance: a cross-national six-country study among young adults
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8744966/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35010794
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010534
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