A Web of Hate? Online Hate Comments and Gendered Political Participation

• In Event: Red-Pill or Woke? Polarization and Online Extremism

Abstract

While gender gaps in traditional forms of political participation are shrinking across Western democracies, comparative studies show persistent differences with regard to the extent to which women and men engage in politics online. In search of a plausible explanation for these findings, we argue that aspects of engagement unique to the online sphere must be better measured and understood. Research shows that online violence such as hate speech does not only affect those who it targets but everyone who sees it. This makes it a powerful tool to silence specific groups online. Women are among those groups most heavily targeted by online hate speech and gendered socialization experiences cause women to avoid especially visible or confrontative participation activities. Thus, we suggest that a hostile atmosphere on the internet, especially in the shape of hateful comments in online discourse, may be a crucial factor for understanding the gendered character of political online discourse. While online hate may have a negative effect on women’s propensity to engage online because they want to avoid confrontation, it may under specific circumstances also mobilize them to show solidarity and to engage, despite the fear of being targeted by hateful comments. Given how the causal relationship between online hate and women’s engagement is not established yet, we employ a pre-registered 2 x 2 between subject vignette experiment in a computer-assisted RDD telephone interview survey in a probability sample (n = 2,200) to explore the circumstances under which women’s online engagement might be sparked or demobilized. Our findings highlight how novel forms of gendered violence in the shape of hate comments impact women’s (and men’s) lives and behaviors and have the potential to exacerbate already existing inequalities.

Authors

• Katharina Heger, Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society

• Hilde Roza Coffe, University of Bath

• Catherine Bolzendahl, Oregon State University