A normalization model for repeated letters in social media hate speech text based on rules and spelling correction.

As social media booms, abusive online practices such as hate speech have unfortunately increased as well. As letters are often repeated in words used to construct social media messages, these types of words should be eliminated or reduced in number to enhance the efficacy of hate speech detection. Although multiple models have attempted to normalize out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words with repeated letters, they often fail to determine whether the in-vocabulary (IV) replacement words are correct or incorrect. Therefore, this study developed an improved model for normalizing OOV words with repeated letters by replacing them with correct in-vocabulary (IV) replacement words. The improved normalization model is an unsupervised method that does not require the use of a special dictionary or annotated data. It combines rule-based patterns of words with repeated letters and the SymSpell spelling correction algorithm to remove repeated letters within the words by multiple rules regarding the position of repeated letters in a word, be it at the beginning, middle, or end of the word and the repetition pattern. Two hate speech datasets were then used to assess performance. The proposed normalization model was able to decrease the percentage of OOV words to 8%. Its F1 score was also 9% and 13% higher than the models proposed by two extant studies. Therefore, the proposed normalization model performed better than the benchmark studies in replacing OOV words with the correct IV replacement and improved the performance of the detection model. As such, suitable rule-based patterns can be combined with spelling correction to develop a text normalization model to correctly replace words with repeated letters, which would, in turn, improve hate speech detection in texts.

Anti-Asian Hate's Impact on Asian American Social Workers: Implications for Professional Training and Education.

This article explores the impact of recent incidents of anti-Asian hate and violence against Asian American social workers, clients, and communities. Asian Americans represent a small but growing proportion of the U.S. population. Yet, Asians are underrepresented in the social work profession-approximately 3.6 percent of the social work workforce and 2.1 percent of licensed social workers are Asian, and data on underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the workforce continue to omit details on Asian people. Recent social and political framing of the COVID-19 pandemic as attributable to Asian people has fueled racist rhetoric and incidents of hate and bias crimes against Asian people. Through exploratory research to understand the experiences of Asian American social workers in the proliferation of anti-Asian hate, authors identified that more should be done to support and meet the needs of Asian American social workers, clients, and communities by improving social work education and training, by addressing the social work workforce and agency practices, and by expanding upon advocacy and community building.

The association between exposure to hate speech or perceived discrimination and mental health problems among Korean residents in Japan.

This study evaluated the effect of perceived discrimination and racism on the mental health state of Korean residents in Japan, with a particular focus on the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and psychological distress. Surveys were sent to Korean residents in Japan and a total of 240 valid responses were received. The valid response rate was 27.1%. The participants answered several questionnaire items, including demographic information and questions pertaining to their experiences of perceived discrimination, along with three self-reported measures of mental health, i.e., the Japanese version of Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The results indicated that Korean residents in Japan experience hate speech and discrimination with a markedly high frequency (92.9% and 100%, respectively), and that factors such as employment discrimination and exposure to hate speech via social networking services were significant predictors of probable PTSD and psychological distress.

Experiences of childhood, intimate partner, non-partner, and hate crime-related violence among a sample of people living with HIV in the epicenter of the U.S. HIV epidemic.

Introduction: Experiences of violence among people living with HIV (PLWH) are thought to be highly prevalent but remain inadequately captured. As a first step toward acceptable, trauma informed practices that improve engagement and retention in care for PLWH, we must acquire more comprehensive understanding of violence experiences. We examined experiences of various forms of lifetime violence: adverse childhood experiences (ACES), intimate partner violence (IPV), non-partner violence (NPV), and hate crimes among diverse sample of PLWH in Atlanta, Georgia. Methods: Cross sectional data collected from in- and out-of-care PLWH (N = 285) receiving care/support from Ryan White Clinics (RWCs), AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs), or large safety-net hospital, February 2021-December 2022. As part of larger study, participants completed interviewer-administered survey and reported on experiences of violence, both lifetime and past year. Participant characteristics and select HIV-related variables were collected to further describe the sample. Univariate and bivariate analyses assessed participant characteristics across types of violence. Results: High prevalence of past violence experiences across all types (ACES: 100%, IPV: 88.7%, NPV: 97.5%, lifetime hate crimes 93.2%). People assigned male at birth who identified as men experienced more violence than women, with exception of non-partner forced sex. Participants identifying as gay men were more likely to have experienced violence. Conclusion: Among our sample of PLWH at the epicenter of the United States HIV epidemic, histories of interpersonal and community violence are common. Findings emphasize need for RWCs, ASOs, and hospital systems to be universally trained in trauma-informed approaches and have integrated onsite mental health and social support services.

Asian Hate, religion, and perceived changes in physical health: exploring the flip side of minority stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Prior research suggests that racism is associated with adverse mental health outcomes for Asians in the United States. Relatively less research has been conducted to examine the effects of racism on physical health, particularly the changes in physical health among Asians and Asian Americans. This study aims to fill in this gap in prior research. DESIGN: Survey was conducted via Qualtrics in March 2023. A panel sample of 356 Asian and Asian American adults from across the US was collected. Ordinary Least Squares Regression was employed to examine the interrelationships among racism, religion, and perceived changes in physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Contrary to conventional wisdom, more frequent experience with blatant racism was associated with a perceived improvement in physical health after controlling for subtle racism, anxiety, acculturation, and various sociodemographic variables. Interestingly, this robust relationship was more significant among Asians who attended religious services more frequently. Additional three-way interactions revealed that the interaction between blatant racism and religious service attendance on perceived changes in physical health was more significant for US-born Asians and Asians of Indian or Japanese ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Racism exerts a significant influence on physical health outcomes among Asians and Asian Americans. However, this relationship was contingent upon the specific aspect of racism and intersected with religiosity, acculturation, and ethnic identity.

"I AM NOT A VIRUS": COVID-19, Anti-Asian Hate, and Comics as Counternarratives.

Ever since the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, East Asians across the globe have been ostracized, othered, pathologized, and subjected to numerous anti-Asian hate crimes. Despite contemporary China's rapid modernization, the country is still perceived as an Oriental and primitive site. Taking these cues, the current article aims to investigate the Sinophobic attitudes in the wake of COVID-19 through a detailed analysis of sequential comics and cartoons by artists of East Asian descent, such as Laura Gao and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom. Drawing theoretical insights from Alexandre White's "epidemic orientalism" and Priscilla Wald's "medicalized nativism," this essay investigates how these chosen comics function as counternarratives through first-person storytelling. In so doing, these comics, while reinstating the dignity of East Asians, also challenge and resist the naturalized methods of seeing that justify violence and dehumanization. The article further argues that Sinophobia and anti-Asian hate crimes are motivated as much by the origins of COVID-19 in China as by the political, economic, and technological variables that have shaped modern China.

Desensitization to hate speech: Examination using heart rate measurement.

Exposure to hate speech (HS) leads to desensitization of listeners. Yet, most evidence of this process has been obtained using self-report measures. In this paper, we examined desensitization to HS using an unobtrusive, psychophysiological measure. In an experimental electrocardiogram study (N = 56), we observed heart rate (HR) deceleration after reading comments that contained HS. This suggested a substantive psychophysiological reaction of participants to hateful comments. However, such HR deceleration was not observed among participants preexposed to HS. People exposed to hateful comments thus appeared to show different HR responses to HS compared to people who were not previously exposed to such comments. Consequently, not only does frequent exposure to HS influence an individual's beliefs as observed in earlier studies, but it also impacts psychophysiological reactions to derogatory language.

Direct and indirect effects of social dominance orientation on hate speech perpetration via empathy and moral disengagement among adolescents: A multilevel mediation model.

Although it is known that social dominance orientation directly affects hate speech perpetration, few studies have explored the mechanisms by which this effect takes place during adolescence. Based on the socio-cognitive theory of moral agency, we aimed to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the direct and indirect effects of social dominance orientation on hate speech perpetration in offline and online settings. The sample included seventh, eigth, and ninth graders (N = 3225) (51.2% girls, 37.2% with an immigrant background) from 36 Swiss and German schools who completed a survey about hate speech, social dominance orientation, empathy, and moral disengagement. A multilevel mediation path model revealed that social dominance orientation had a direct effect on offline and online hate speech perpetration. Moreover, social dominance also had indirect effects via low levels of empathy and high levels of moral disengagement. No gender differences were observed. Our findings are discussed regarding the potential contribution to preventing hate speech during adolescence.

Validation of the multidimensional bystander responses to racist hate speech scale and its association with empathy and moral disengagement among adolescents.

Our understanding of how bystanders respond to hate speech is limited. This may be due, in part, to the lack of available measurement tools. However, understanding adolescents' responses to hate speech is critical because this kind of research can support schools in empowering students to exhibit courageous moral behavior. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the newly developed Multidimensional Bystander Responses to Hate Speech Scale (MBRHS) and to explore demographic differences and correlates of bystander behavior in school hate speech. The sample consisted of 3225 seventh to ninth graders from Germany and Switzerland. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a model with seven factors. We found that adolescents with immigrant background and boys showed particularly unfavorable response patterns. In addition, our study suggests that empathy is positively correlated with the factors comforting the victim, seeking help at school, and countering hate speech but negatively correlated with helplessness, revenge, reinforcing, and ignoring. Moral disengagement showed the opposite correlational pattern. The findings indicate that the MBRHS is a psychometrically valid and reliable measure that could aid in measuring varied responses to hate speech. In addition, this work highlights the relevance of empathy and moral engagement training in anti-hate speech prevention programs.

Do Narcisismo das Pequenas Diferenças ao Gozo Narcísico / From the Narcissism of Small Differences to Narcissistic Jouissance / Del Narcisismo de las Pequeñas Diferencias al Goce Narcisista

A proposta desse ensaio é retomar a incursão de Freud, a partir da Primeira Guerra Mundial, na fonte do sofrimento que vem das relações entre os humanos, indicando a novidade que significou o conceito de narcisismo das pequenas diferenças na apreensão dos movimentos coletivos que declaram uma inócua expressão de hostilidade ao outro, ou os que promulgam ações destrutivas e mortíferas contra o outro eleito como seu inimigo absoluto. Com o advento da pulsão de morte, Freud redimensiona o conceito de narcisismo das pequenas diferenças e introduz a ideia de que a satisfação das pulsões que atingem a mais cega fúria de destruição, está conectada a um gozo [Genuß] narcísico. Esse gozo, na leitura de Lacan, é um mal porque comporta um mal à alteridade. É com esse legado que nos propomos pensar a extensão da psicanálise ao discurso decolonial e outros discursos contra hegemônicos, através do diálogo interdisciplinar, na leitura das linguagens de ódio que enfrentamos em nossa época.

The purpose of this essay is to resume Freud's incursion, from the First World War, on the source of the suffering that comes from the relationships between humans, indicating the novelty that meant the concept of narcissism of small differences in the apprehension of collective movements that declare an innocuous expression of hostility to the other, or those who enact destructive and deadly actions against the other chosen as their absolute enemy. With the advent of the death drive, Freud re-dimensions the concept of narcissism of small differences and introduces the idea that the satisfaction of drives that reach the blindest fury of destruction is connected to a narcissistic jouissance [Genuß]. This jouissance, in Lacan's reading, is an evil because it entails an evil to alterity. It is with this legacy that we propose to think about the extension of psychoanalysis to the decolonial discourse and other counter-hegemonic discourses, through interdisciplinary dialogue, in the reading of the languages of hate that we face in our time.

El propósito de este ensayo es retomar la incursión de Freud, desde la Primera Guerra Mundial, sobre el origen del sufrimiento que proviene de las relaciones entre los humanos, señalando la novedad que significó el concepto de narcisismo de las pequeñas diferencias en la aprehensión de los movimientos colectivos que declaran una expresión inocua de hostilidad hacia el otro, o los que ejecutan acciones destructivas y mortíferas contra el otro elegido como su enemigo absoluto. Con el advenimiento de la pulsión de muerte, Freud redimensiona el concepto de narcisismo de las pequeñas diferencias e introduce la idea de que la satisfacción de las pulsiones que alcanzan la más ciega furia de destrucción está ligada a un goce narcisista [Genuß]. Este goce, en la lectura de Lacan, es un mal porque implica un mal a la alteridad.Es con este legado que nos proponemos pensar la extensión del psicoanálisis al discurso decolonial y otros discursos contrahegemónicos, a través del diálogo interdisciplinario, en la lectura de los lenguajes de odio que enfrentamos en nuestro tiempo.

Local deprivation predicts right-wing hate crime in England.

We argue that community deprivation can increase the risk of right-wing radicalization and violent attacks and that measures of local deprivation can help improve forecasting local hate crime rates. A large body of research stresses how experiences of deprivation can erode the perceived legitimacy of political leaders and institutions, increase alienation, and encourage right-wing radicalization and hate crime. Existing analyses have found limited support for a close relationship between deprivation and radicalization among individuals. We provide an alternative approach using highly disaggregated data for England and show that information on local deprivation can improve predictions of the location of right-wing hate crime attacks. Beyond the ability to predict where right-wing hate crime is likely, our results suggest that efforts to decrease deprivation can have important consequences for political violence, and that targeting structural facilitators to prevent far-right violence ex ante can be an alternative or complement to ex post measures.

"No one can hate you more than I do": The perverse interplay of life and death drives in Roman Polanski's film Bitter Moon.

In this paper, the authors explore the depiction of perversion and the associated interplay of life and death drives in Roman Polanski's 1992 film Bitter Moon. To begin with, a theoretical discussion is presented regarding perverse organizations of mastery and sadomasochism. Perversion is viewed as an expression of the death drive under erotic disguise, in which the destructive fingerprint of the death drive is revealed at every stage, having as its ultimate purpose the destruction of the other. Based on these theoretical insights a dialogue is developed with Polanski's film, which brings to life the theory of sadomasochistic relations through the multidimensional aesthetic medium of cinema. It is shown how Polanski's cinematic oeuvre conveys the essence of the difficult and complex experience of perverse relations, where the life and death drives and their transformations are manifested. The portrayal of the sadomasochistic relations in this film contributes to the experiential knowledge with which the authors promote insight that would potentially enrich the clinical work with patients with perverse organizations.

Assessment of Functional and Dysfunctional Perceived Threat of Hate Crimes Among Persons With and Without Disability.

This study examined the relationship between disability status and perceived threat of hate crimes. Building on existing conceptual frameworks, first we differentiated between dysfunctional perceived threat that damages quality of life and functional perceived threat that has the capacity to be motivational and precautionary. We then examined how disability status predicts individuals' threat memberships across dysfunctional and functional perceived threats of hate crimes. Results-based on a survey of 1,824 adults recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk-indicate that persons with a disability are more likely than those without a disability to exhibit dysfunctional perceived threat (vs. functional or no perceived threat) of hate crime across different bias motivations. This relationship was evident even when accounting for those most at risk for each type of hate crime (e.g., persons of color for anti-race/ethnicity hate crime). Further, persons with cognitive and physical disabilities were associated with higher odds of dysfunctional perceived threat of all types of hate crimes when compared to persons without a disability. Overall, the present study highlights that persons with a disability may experience exacerbated consequences of subjective threat of hate crimes. Findings also suggest the importance of an intersectional approach to hate crime by considering how disability may intersect with other forms of oppression in relation to perceived threat of hate crime. Implications and future directions, especially as they relate to measurement, are discussed.

Ingroup love, outgroup hate, and the gateway group effect: Comparing the direct and indirect impact of dual versus single identification.

Decades of research in social identity have shown that people instinctively hold positive attitudes towards ingroup members and negative attitudes towards outgroup members. However, it remains unclear how people respond to individuals explicitly identified with both one's ingroup and outgroup. We propose that when people are exposed to dual-identified individuals and groups (e.g., Muslim-Americans explicitly identifying with both their Muslim and American identities), intergroup attitudes will improve, driven more by the ingroup component (American), despite the presence of the outgroup component (Muslim). Moreover, we suggest exposure to dual-identification can also improve attitudes toward the broader outgroup (Muslims more generally), a phenomenon called the gateway-group effect. To test these hypotheses, we created a new measure of dual-identification and conducted three studies involving both Muslim-Americans and Mexican-Americans. Results confirmed that exposure to explicitly dual-identified groups improved attitudes towards the dual-identified group (e.g., Mexican-Americans) as well as toward the respective outgroup (e.g., Mexicans).

COVID-19 and Sinophobia: Detecting Warning Signs of Radicalization on Twitter and Reddit.

Hate crimes and hateful rhetoric targeting individuals of Asian descent have increased since the outbreak of COVID-19. These troubling trends have heightened concerns about the role of the Internet in facilitating radicalization. This article explores the existence of three warning signs of radicalization-fixation, group identification, and energy bursts-using data from Twitter and Reddit. Data were collected before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 to assess the role of the pandemic in affecting social media behavior. Using computational social science and Natural Language Processing techniques, we looked for signs of radicalization targeting China or Chinese individuals. Results show that fixation on the terms China and Chinese increased on Twitter and Reddit after the pandemic began. Moreover, tweets and posts containing either of these terms became more hateful, offensive, and negative after the outbreak. We also found evidence of individuals identifying more closely with a particular group, or adopting an "us vs. them" mentality, after the outbreak of COVID-19. These findings were especially prominent in subreddits catering to self-identified Republicans and Conservatives. Finally, we detected bursts of activity on Twitter and Reddit following the start of the pandemic. These warning signs suggest COVID-19 may have had a radicalizing effect on some social media users. This work is important because it not only shows the potential radicalizing effect of the pandemic, but also demonstrates the ability to detect warning signs of radicalization on social media. This is critical, as detecting warning signs of radicalization can potentially help curb hate-fueled violence.

An Analysis of Temporal Trends in Anti-Asian Hate and Counter-Hate on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Recent studies have documented increases in anti-Asian hate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet relatively little is known about how anti-Asian content on social media, as well as positive messages to combat the hate, have varied over time. In this study, we investigated temporal changes in the frequency of anti-Asian and counter-hate messages on Twitter during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the Twitter Data Collection Application Programming Interface, we queried all tweets from January 30, 2020 to April 30, 2021 that contained specific anti-Asian (e.g., #chinavirus, #kungflu) and counter-hate (e.g., #hateisavirus) keywords. From this initial data set, we extracted a random subset of 1,000 Twitter users who had used one or more anti-Asian or counter-hate keywords. For each of these users, we calculated the total number of anti-Asian and counter-hate keywords posted each month. Latent growth curve analysis revealed that the frequency of anti-Asian keywords fluctuated over time in a curvilinear pattern, increasing steadily in the early months and then decreasing in the later months of our data collection. In contrast, the frequency of counter-hate keywords remained low for several months and then increased in a linear manner. Significant between-user variability in both anti-Asian and counter-hate content was observed, highlighting individual differences in the generation of hate and counter-hate messages within our sample. Together, these findings begin to shed light on longitudinal patterns of hate and counter-hate on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Role of Informal Social Control in Predicting Racist Hate Speech on Online Platforms: Collective Efficacy and the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the present study examined the relative importance of informal social control and social cohesion/trust in the behavioral intention to post online race-related hate speech. A conceptual framework of a mediation model was validated on data from 809 survey respondents, and age, gender, Internet usage, and the number of posts representing racist hate speech on online platforms in a 1-year period were controlled for as demographic data. Twenty-six measurement items were designed to measure the four TPB constructs of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and behavioral intention, as well as the two action-oriented variables of social cohesion/trust and informal social control. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test a series of research hypotheses, and the findings were as follows: (a) informal social control partially mediated the relationships between behavioral intention to post online race-related hate speech and both attitude and subjective norm; (b) informal social control fully mediated the influence of PBC on behavioral intention; and (c) social cohesion/trust did not significantly mediate any of the relationships between behavioral intention and attitude, subjective norm, or PBC. The results indicate that the willingness to intervene in informal social control plays an important role in preventing unwelcome online activity.