IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v118y2024i4p2054-2071_29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Keep Your Heads Held High Boys!”: Examining the Relationship between the Proud Boys’ Online Discourse and Offline Activities

Author

Listed:
  • BAILARD, CATIE SNOW
  • TROMBLE, REBEKAH
  • ZHONG, WEI
  • BIANCHI, FEDERICO
  • HOSSEINI, PEDRAM
  • BRONIATOWSKI, DAVID

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between online communication by the Proud Boys and their offline activities. We use a supervised machine learning model to analyze a novel dataset of Proud Boys Telegram messages, merged with US Crisis Monitor data of violent and nonviolent events in which group members participated over a 31-month period. Our analysis finds that intensifying expressions of grievances online predict participation in offline violence, whereas motivational appeals to group pride, morale, or solidarity share a reciprocal relationship with participation in offline events. This suggests a potential online messaging–offline action cycle, in which (a) nonviolent offline protests predict an increasing proportion of motivational messaging and (b) increases in the frequency and proportion of motivational appeals online, in turn, predict subsequent violent offline activities. Our findings offer useful theoretical insights for understanding the relationship between online speech and offline behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Bailard, Catie Snow & Tromble, Rebekah & Zhong, Wei & Bianchi, Federico & Hosseini, Pedram & Broniatowski, David, 2024. "“Keep Your Heads Held High Boys!”: Examining the Relationship between the Proud Boys’ Online Discourse and Offline Activities," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 118(4), pages 2054-2071, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:118:y:2024:i:4:p:2054-2071_29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055423001478/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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:118:y:2024:i:4:p:2054-2071_29. 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.