Niklas Cypris held a presentation at the 12th Media Psychology Conference, which took place at the RWTH Aachen University on September 8-10, 2021. The presentation was centered around a study conducted to analyze the leveraging of group identity to counter online hate speech. The study indicated the importance of investigating whether counter speech by ingroup members against online hate speech can be a mechanism motivating to speak up against hate. This research is very important in identifying the mechanisms that motivate individuals to speak up against online hate. The study suggested that counter-speech by ingroup members against online hate speech is positively associated with the increased perception that counter-speech is representative for individuals’ own in-group. Moreover, this relationship would be mediated by the perceived representativeness of counter-speech for the participant´s ingroup. The implications of such study are fundamental for the research conducted on online interventions to mitigate online norm violations.

For more information, you can visit the conference´s website here.