This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and impact of hateful speech within college communities, where such speech can have particularly harmful psychological and social consequences.
Regulating hateful speech on college campuses raises complex socio-political challenges, making it essential to assess both how widespread the phenomenon is and how it affects students’ psychological well-being.
Focusing on the online dimension of campus life, a dataset of approximately six million Reddit comments shared across 174 college-related communities was analyzed.
To measure the prevalence of hateful speech, the authors introduce the College Hate Index (CHX), which is used to examine the distribution of hateful speech across categories such as behavior, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, physical appearance, race, religion, and sexual orientation. A causal inference framework is then applied to investigate the psychological effects of exposure to hateful speech, particularly through expressions of online stress.
The analysis also explored differences in psychological endurance by examining language use, discriminatory keywords, and personality traits.
Findings showed that hateful speech is prevalent in online college communities, with around 25% of college subreddits exhibiting higher levels of hateful speech than non-college subreddits. Exposure to hateful content was associated with increased stress expression, although individuals were not affected equally. Students with lower psychological endurance appear more vulnerable to emotional outbursts and exhibit higher levels of neuroticism compared to those with greater resilience.
Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1145/3292522.3326032
Reference
Saha, K., Chandrasekharan, E., & De Choudhury, M. (2019). Prevalence and Psychological Effects of Hateful Speech in Online College Communities. Proceedings of the … ACM Web Science Conference. ACM Web Science Conference, 2019, 255–264