Examining the efficacy of different counter hate speech messages towards migration in Italy

• Autor(a) principal: Devitini, Matilde Anna Benedetta Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/26757
• topic: Discurso de ódio -- Hate speech; Counter speech; Empathy; Affiliation; Sensitivity to hate speech; Migrants; Italy; Contra discurso; Empatia; Afiliação; Sensibilidade ao discurso do ódio; Migrantes; Itália

The present study examined the efficacy of different types of counter speech on hate speech sensitivity and attitudes towards migrants and migration in Italy. Specifically, it examined whether counter speech messages highlighting empathy and affiliation could increase sensitivity to hate speech, increase empathy towards migrants, increase openness towards migrants and increase support for restrictive migration policies. Italian participants (N = 890) recruited through convenience sampling (e.g., Facebook groups) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (empathy, affiliation, or control). Results showed no significant effects of the manipulation, that is there were no differences in sensitivity to hate speech, empathy towards migrants, openness towards migrants and support for restrictive migration policies between conditions. Exploratory correlation analyses showed some unexpected findings: self-reported commonalities with the speaker of the hateful message were associated with lower empathy and support for restrictive policies. Despite the lack of significant effects of our manipulation, this study is to the best of our knowledge one of the firsts testing the impact of different of counter speech strategies and the correlational findings suggest important questions for future research.