Testing Hypotheses from the Social Approval Theory of Online Hate: An Analysis of 110 Million Posts from Parler
This research addresses the problem of understanding hate speech dynamics on niche social media platforms, but the findings are incremental as they challenge but do not overturn existing theories.
The study tested hypotheses from social approval theory on online hate using 110 million Parler posts, finding that upvotes on hate speech posts were not associated with subsequent hate speech production, and the relationship was mixed or negative at various time intervals.
In this paper, we explored how online hate is motivated by receiving social approval from others. We specifically examined two central tenets of Walther's (2024) social approval theory of online hate: (H1a) more signals of social approval on hate messages predicts more subsequent hate messages, and (H1b) as social approval increases, hate speech messages become more extreme. Using over 110 million posts from Parler (2018-2021), we observed that the number of upvotes a person received on a hate speech post was unassociated with the amount of hate speech in their next post and posts during the next week, month, three months, and six months. Between-person effects revealed an average negative relationship between social approval and hate speech production at the post level, but this relationship was mixed at other time intervals. Social approval reinforcement mechanisms of online hate may operate differently on niche social media platforms.