{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,29]],"date-time":"2026-10-29T23:44:19Z","timestamp":1793317459990,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","issue":"50","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,6]],"date-time":"2021-12-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1638748800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013348","name":"InnoSuisse","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["46165.1 IP-SBM"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["46165.1 IP-SBM"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013348","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Swiss Federal Office of Communications","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.pnas.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Despite heightened awareness of the detrimental impact of hate speech on social media platforms on affected communities and public discourse, there is little consensus on approaches to mitigate it. While content moderation\u2014either by governments or social media companies\u2014can curb online hostility, such policies may suppress valuable as well as illicit speech and might disperse rather than reduce hate speech. As an alternative strategy, an increasing number of international and nongovernmental organizations (I\/NGOs) are employing counterspeech to confront and reduce online hate speech. Despite their growing popularity, there is scant experimental evidence on the effectiveness and design of counterspeech strategies (in the public domain). Modeling our interventions on current I\/NGO practice, we randomly assign English-speaking Twitter users who have sent messages containing xenophobic (or racist) hate speech to one of three counterspeech strategies\u2014empathy, warning of consequences, and humor\u2014or a control group. Our intention-to-treat analysis of 1,350 Twitter users shows that empathy-based counterspeech messages can increase the retrospective deletion of xenophobic hate speech by 0.2 SD and reduce the prospective creation of xenophobic hate speech over a 4-wk follow-up period by 0.1 SD. We find, however, no consistent effects for strategies using humor or warning of consequences. Together, these results advance our understanding of the central role of empathy in reducing exclusionary behavior and inform the design of future counterspeech interventions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2116310118","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,6]],"date-time":"2021-12-06T18:15:41Z","timestamp":1638814541000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":114,"title":["Empathy-based counterspeech can reduce racist hate speech in a social media field experiment"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"118","author":[{"given":"Dominik","family":"Hangartner","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"},{"name":"Immigration Policy Lab, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0182-6635","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gloria","family":"Gennaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"},{"name":"Immigration Policy Lab, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sary","family":"Alasiri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nicholas","family":"Bahrich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexandra","family":"Bornhoft","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joseph","family":"Boucher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Buket Buse","family":"Demirci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0815-339X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Laurenz","family":"Derksen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"},{"name":"Immigration Policy Lab, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9980-1355","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aldo","family":"Hall","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthias","family":"Jochum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Murias","family":"Munoz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marc","family":"Richter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Franziska","family":"Vogel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Salom\u00e9","family":"Wittwer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Felix","family":"W\u00fcthrich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Comparative and International Studies, Eidgen\u00f6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabrizio","family":"Gilardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9080-6539","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karsten","family":"Donnay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_1_2","volume-title":"United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech \u2013 Detailed Guidance on Implementation for United Nations Field Presences","author":"United Nations","year":"2020","unstructured":"United Nations, United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech \u2013 Detailed Guidance on Implementation for United Nations Field Presences (United Nations, 2020)."},{"key":"e_1_3_4_2_2","volume-title":"Online Hate Speech in Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform","author":"Siegel 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