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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1422422
This article is part of the Research Topic Extremism and Games View all 3 articles

Hate Speech and Hate-Based Harassment in Online Games

Provisionally accepted
Garrison Wells Garrison Wells *Agnes Romhanyi Agnes Romhanyi Constance Steinkuehler Constance Steinkuehler
  • University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The proliferation of hate speech and hate-based harassment has become a worryingly common trend in online gaming spaces, with researchers fearing that it could lead to the normalization of hateful behaviors on such platforms. However, little research has been done assessing the frequency of such events and how players respond to their occurrence. In this study, we conduct a large-scale survey (n=602) asking players to reflect on their experiences and responses to hateful conduct in online games. We examine their perspectives when faced with hate speech and harassment from the role of a bystander, a victim, or the perpetrator. We then compare these responses with various demographic factors and personality traits to determine which variables might predict such conduct to occur and persist over time. Our findings suggest that hate speech and harassment are more accepted by those who are not directly targeted, potentially leaving those players as the remaining few to continue inhabiting and shaping online gaming spaces over time.

    Keywords: games, extremism, Toxicity, Survey, Hate speech

    Received: 24 Apr 2024; Accepted: 10 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wells, Romhanyi and Steinkuehler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Garrison Wells, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.