White People More Likely to Stand Up to Racism on Social Media When Setting Social Norms

A new study from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of California, Santa Barbara has examined how White people respond when encountering racists posts on social media and how likely they are to challenge hate speech online. The research team presented a sample of 1,350 people with a hypothetical situation in which they came across a racist post online, either by a friend, family member, acquaintance, or stranger. The participants were asked how likely they would be to challenge the author based on two different motivations: changing the author’s viewpoint versus setting social norms by stating the author’s content was discriminatory. When examining the results from the 719 White respondents, the researchers found they were more likely to challenge a racist post if the goal was to set social norms. They also found White respondents were more likely to speak up if the author was a friend or family member. Stewart Coles, study author and assistant professor at the University of Illinois, believes that intervening and standing up to discrimination online is crucial to combating structural racism and acts of racial violence. When encouraging White people to address racism they encounter online, “[f]raming the confrontation goal...