Group Salience, Inflammatory Rhetoric, and Hate Crimes (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Crises in Digital Journalism

Abstract

Recorded hate crimes in the United States surged at several points during and after the 2016 US presidential election. Observers argue that hate crimes increased due to inflammatory rhetoric. Do we also see declines in hate crimes after the salience of a group and accompanying inflammatory rhetoric recede? Or might emboldening and organizational effects on hate crimes be more enduring? Here, using seven data sources on online discussions (4chan, Gab, Reddit), media coverage (texts of US newspapers), and hate crime and bias incident reports (ADL, CAIR, FBI), we show that a sudden mid-2017 decline in discussion of Muslims in the media and in online communities was associated with a large and sustained drop in anti-Muslim hate crimes and bias incidents. At nearly the same time as these shifts, however, we observe elevated anti-Jewish bias incidents persisting well after the 2016 election and evidence suggestive of an increase in particularly violent hate crimes committed against Jewish Americans. Platform-level and within-individual analyses of online social media users suggest that increased anti-Jewish speech was partly driven by far-right communities and extremists who previously promoted anti-Muslim speech.

Authors

• William Hobbs, Cornell University

• Nazita Lajevardi, Michigan State University

• Xinyi Li, Cornell University

• Caleb Lucas, Michigan State University