Unifying Models of Intergroup Hostility in Online Discourse
Researchers unify six theories of intergroup hostility using 2.86 million TikTok, Truth Social, and Twitter/X posts, finding boundary and threat construction anchor rhetoric.
The study models mechanisms from six foundational theories of intergroup hostility - boundary construction, threat construction, scapegoating, negative evaluation, dehumanization, and action orientation - within a common empirical framework using 2.86 million posts from TikTok, Truth Social, and Twitter/X during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Structurally, boundary and threat construction anchor the system; temporally, boundary construction, derogation, and action orientation appear early, dehumanization and threat construction later, and scapegoating last. The work aims to give computational social science a unified empirical basis for modeling hostile rhetoric beyond single-label detection.
- Analyzes 2.86 million posts from TikTok, Truth Social, and Twitter/X around the 2024 U.S. election
- Unifies six social-science theories of hostility in one empirical framework
- Boundary construction and threat construction structurally anchor hostile rhetoric
- Temporal ordering found: early derogation and action orientation, latest scapegoating
- Products
- TikTokTruth SocialTwitter/X
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgHostile rhetoric toward social groups can normalize exclusion and justify mistreatment, as well as contribute to rising polarization and political violence. Efforts to moderate hostile rhetoric in online speech draw on foundational theories in social and moral psychology, and political science.
By Patrick Gerard · arxiv.org
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