Exploring Hate Speech Dynamics: The Emotional, Linguistic, and Thematic Impact on Social Media Users
Online hate speech has become an increasing concern, especially with the rise of social media platforms where harmful content can spread quickly and widely. In this study, we aimed to understand how posting hateful content affects the people who create it. Specifically, we looked at whether engaging in hate speech changes a user's emotions, language, and behavior over time.
Our findings revealed that users who post hateful content often display more negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, and sadness, compared to those who do not engage in such behavior. They also tend to use more profanity and moral outrage in their language. While these emotions and expressions peak around the time of posting hateful content, they gradually decline but remain higher than in non-hateful users, suggesting lingering emotional effects. In addition to emotional patterns, our topic analysis revealed that hate-related topics are more interconnected compared to non-hate topics. Hate speech narratives tend to cluster around controversial themes, such as political conflicts and conspiracy theories, with topics tightly linked to one another. This interconnectedness indicates that hateful content often reinforces itself through repeated exposure to similar ideas, creating echo chambers where negative sentiments thrive. Furthermore, hate-related content demonstrates higher global cohesion, meaning that the language and ideas are more uniform across different posts. However, these narratives show lower topic specificity, as they tend to generalize across broad themes rather than focusing deeply on specific issues. This pattern suggests that hate speech does not just harm the targets but also impacts the well-being of the individuals who spread it, as they become entrenched in cycles of negativity and social isolation.
These insights are important for society because they highlight a cycle where engaging in hate speech may reinforce negative emotions, potentially leading to more harmful behavior both online and offline. Understanding this can help social media platforms and policymakers develop better strategies to reduce hate speech and promote healthier online environments. For example, interventions could focus on disrupting these echo chambers and promoting counter-narratives that encourage empathy and critical thinking. Ultimately, recognizing that hate speech affects both the target and the perpetrator underscores the need for comprehensive approaches to foster positive and supportive online communities, where diversity of thought is celebrated and harmful behaviors are effectively mitigated.
Ghenai, A., Noorian, Z., Moradisani, H., Abadeh, P., Erentzen, C., & Zarrinkalam, F. (2025). Exploring hate speech dynamics: The emotional, linguistic, and thematic impact on social media users (external link, opens in new window) . Information Processing & Management, 62(3), 104079. DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2025.104079