Motives of Online Hate Speech: Results from a Quota Sample Online Survey

Online hate speech (OHS) is a prevalent societal problem, but most studies investigating the reasons and causes of OHS focus on the perpetrators' side while ignoring the bystanders' and the victims' side. This is also true for the underlying theories. Therefore, we proposed a new Action-Theoretical Model of Online Hate Speech (ATMOHS), which assumes that OHS is a product of environmental, situational, and personal variables with three groups involved (perpetrators, bystanders, and victims) that each have their own set of motives, attitudes, traits, and norm beliefs that are impacting their behavior. The model was put to a first test with an online survey using a quota sample of the German online population (N = 1,791). The study at hand is a first analysis of these data that focus on the motives of OHS. Results show that wanting to be a role model for others is an important motive on the active bystanders' side. However, it could not be confirmed that any aggression motive is important on the perpetrators' side or that undeservingness is an important motive on the victims' side. Future studies could investigate if there are other motives for the victims' side that are in-line with the underlying theory of learned helplessness, or if there is a better theory for modeling the victims' side. Future studies could also develop a better scale for aggression motives. In practice, prevention programs could focus on being a role model for others as a relevant motive for becoming an active bystander.