ScienceDaily: Extreme temperatures fuel online hate speech

“"Detecting hate tweets in more than four billion tweets from U.S. users with our AI-algorithm and combining them with weather data, we found that both the absolute number and the share of hate tweets rise outside a climate comfort zone: People tend to show a more aggressive online behavior when it's either too cold or too hot outside.," states PIK scientist Annika Stechemesser, first author of the study to be published in The Lancet Planetary Health. "Being the target of online hate speech is a serious threat to people's mental health. The psychological literature tells us that online hate can aggravate mental health conditions especially for young people and marginalized groups," Stechemesser adds. "We see that outside the feel-good window of 12-21°C (54-70°F) online hate increases up to 12 percent for colder temperatures and up to 22 percent for hotter temperatures across the USA ."

The well-tempered tweet: Least hate tweets at 15-18 °C (59-65°F) across the USA

JungTo arrive at these findings, the authors used a machine-learning approach to identify ca. 75 million English phrased hate tweets in a data set consisting of more than 4 billion tweets posted on Twitter in the USA between 2014 and 2020. To arrive at these findings, the authors used a machine-learning approach to identify ca. 75 million English phrased hate tweets in a data set consisting of more than 4 billion tweets posted on Twitter in the USA between 2014 and 2020. Subsequently, the authors analyzed how the number of hate tweets changed when local temperatures increased or decreased. In defining hate speech, the researchers were guided by the official UN definition: Cases of discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.

Across the USA, the authors found low levels of hate tweets in a 'feel-good window' of 12-21°C (54-70 °F); the minimum of hate tweets is reached for temperatures between 15 and 18°C (59-65°F) . Temperatures hotter and colder are linked to increases in hate tweets. The precise feel-good temperature window varies a little across climate zones, depending on what temperatures are common. Temperatures above 30°C, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, are however consistently linked to strong increases in online hate across all climate zones and socioeconomic differences such as income, religious beliefs or political preferences.”

Some Insights From This Article

• An interesting finding, according to a survey on twitter tweets, during the massive heat wave this summer, it was found that people posted more negative/hate tweets when it was very hot compared to days that were more mild.

• Researchers posit that in general extreme weather can cause people to feel generally more easily irritable due to constant discomfort of the heat. It’s important to understand that these factors may lower the threshold of what may set people off to engage in hate speech online.

• Perhaps it may be evidence for us to understand the factors such as the weather affecting our own emotions and moods. I know personally that there are many situations where I am more easily irritable and prone to negative emotions than others and during these situations I take more awareness and precaution to my current predicament.

In what environments do you find yourself more easily irritable?

Full article is here!

#Weather #Emotions #Summer