IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v114y2020i3p837-855_15.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

#No2Sectarianism: Experimental Approaches to Reducing Sectarian Hate Speech Online

Author

Listed:
  • SIEGEL, ALEXANDRA A.
  • BADAAN, VIVIENNE

Abstract

We use an experiment across the Arab Twittersphere and a nationally representative survey experiment in Lebanon to evaluate what types of counter-speech interventions are most effective in reducing sectarian hate speech online. We explore whether and to what extent messages priming common national identity or common religious identity, with and without elite endorsements, decrease the use of hostile anti-outgroup language. We find that elite-endorsed messages that prime common religious identity are the most consistently effective in reducing the spread of sectarian hate speech. Our results provide suggestive evidence that religious elites may play an important role as social referents—alerting individuals to social norms of acceptable behavior. By randomly assigning counter-speech treatments to actual producers of online hate speech and experimentally evaluating the effectiveness of these messages on a representative sample of citizens that might be incidentally exposed to such language, this work offers insights for researchers and policymakers on avenues for combating harmful rhetoric on and offline.

Suggested Citation

  • Siegel, Alexandra A. & Badaan, Vivienne, 2020. "#No2Sectarianism: Experimental Approaches to Reducing Sectarian Hate Speech Online," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 114(3), pages 837-855, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:114:y:2020:i:3:p:837-855_15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055420000283/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steven Windisch & Susann Wiedlitzka & Ajima Olaghere & Elizabeth Jenaway, 2022. "Online interventions for reducing hate speech and cyberhate: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), June.
    2. Rafael Jimenez-Duran, 2021. "The Economics of Content Moderation: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Hate Speech on Twitter," Natural Field Experiments 00754, The Field Experiments Website.
    3. Guy Aridor & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Ro'ee Levy & Lena Song, 2024. "The Economics of Social Media," CESifo Working Paper Series 10934, CESifo.
    4. Jiménez-Durán, Rafael, 2022. "The economics of content moderation: Theory and experimental evidence from hate speech on Twitter," Working Papers 324, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    5. Alrababah, Ala & Marble, William & Mousa, Salma & Siegel, Alexandra Arons, 2024. "Are Minorities Punished More Harshly for Underperformance? Evidence from Premier League Soccer," OSF Preprints 7d2cu, Center for Open Science.
    6. Walk,Erin Elizabeth & Garimella,Kiran & Christia,Fotini, 2022. "Displacement and Return in the Internet Era : How Social Media Captures Migration Decisionsin Northern Syria," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10024, The World Bank.
    7. Grossman, Allison N. & Nomikos, William George & Siddiqui, Niloufer, 2021. "Can Appeals For Peace Promote Tolerance and Mitigate Support for Extremism? Evidence from an Experiment with Adolescents in Burkina Faso," OSF Preprints 49na5, Center for Open Science.
    8. Steven Windisch & Susann Wiedlitzka & Ajima Olaghere, 2021. "PROTOCOL: Online interventions for reducing hate speech and cyberhate: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:114:y:2020:i:3:p:837-855_15. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.