EXTREMISMHate Speech on Social Media Fueled By Users’ Shared Values, Moral Concerns
People whose moral beliefs and values align closely with other members of their online communities — including those on social networks Gab and Reddit — are more prone to radicalization, according to new research.
Researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences had theorized that a high level of consistency in similar moral concerns within online communities is linked to an increase in radical intentions and extremism — that is, readiness to participate in illegal or violent political action.
In research published this week in Social Psychological and Personality Science, they found the degree of shared moral concerns or “moral convergence” within an online cluster predicts the number of hate speech messages posted by members.
“Our research team has looked at how morality motivates people to engage in various types of behavior, from donation during a disaster to taking extreme actions, even violence, to protect their group,” said study lead author Mohammad Atari, who recently defended his Ph.D. in the Department of Psychology at USC Dornsife and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. “They feel like others are doing something morally wrong and it’s their sacred duty to do something about it, even if that means posting hate speech and committing hate crimes.”
Scientists first analyzed posts on an alternative social media network popular with the alt-right and right-wing extremists called Gab. The platform, which claims to champion free speech and isn’t moderated for hate speech, provided the researchers with a unique opportunity to investigate the dynamics that could lead to radicalization.
They found Gab users who had a similar moral profile with their immediate group — meaning they had shared values and felt similarly about core moral issues including care, fairness, loyalty, purity and authority — were more likely to disseminate hate speech and use language intended to dehumanize or even call for violence against outgroup members.
Extremism on Social Media Linked to Shared Values and Morality
The researchers replicated the observations in the Gab study by looking at another extremist network in the online community Reddit. They analyzed a subreddit called “Incels” — involuntary celibate men who blame women for their inability to find sexual partners — and found those who were more like-minded in their morality produced more hateful, misogynistic speech.
