2025/07/14 by David M. Markowitz, Markowitz, David M., Samuel Hardman Taylor +1
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Computation and Language (cs.CL) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection #Social Media and Politics #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.10810
openalex publication_date 2025/07/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We examined how online hate is motivated by receiving social approval via Walther's (2024) social approval theory of online hate, which argues (H1a) more signals of social approval on hate messages predicts more subsequent hate messages, and (H1b) as social approval increases, hate speech becomes more extreme. Using 110 million messages from Parler (2018-2021), we observed the number of upvotes received on a hate speech post was unassociated with hate speech in one's next post and during the next month, three-months, and six-months. The number of upvotes received on (extreme) hate speech comments, however, was positively associated with (extreme) hate speech during the next week, month, three-months, and six-months. Between-person effects revealed an average positive relationship between social approval and hate speech production at all time intervals. For comments, social approval linked more strongly to online hate than social disapproval. Social approval is a critical mechanism facilitating online hate propagation.