Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40593002›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2025

Counterspeech encouraging users to adopt the perspective of minority groups reduces hate speech and its amplification on social media.

Gloria Gennaro, Laurenz Derksen, Aya Abdelrahman, Emma Broggini, Mariya Alexandra Green, Victoria Andrea Haerter, Elia Heer, Isabel Heidler, Fiona Kauer, Han-Nuri Kim and 9 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Gloria GennaroDepartment of Political Science, University College London, London, WC1H9QU, UK.
Laurenz DerksenCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Aya AbdelrahmanCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Emma BrogginiCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Mariya Alexandra GreenCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Victoria Andrea HaerterDepartment of Social Sciences, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
Elia HeerCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Isabel HeidlerCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Fiona KauerCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Han-Nuri KimCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Benjamin LandryCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Alessio LevisCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Jiazhen LiSchool of Business and Economics, University of Tübingen, 72074, Tübingen, Germany.
Şevval ŞimşirCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Iva SrbinovskaCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Robin Anna VitalCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Karsten DonnayDepartment of Political Science, University of Zurich, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland.
Fabrizio GilardiDepartment of Political Science, University of Zurich, 8050, Zurich, Switzerland.
Dominik HangartnerCenter for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland. dominik.hangartner@gess.ethz.ch.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Online intergroup hostility is a pervasive and troubling issue, yet experimental evidence on how to curb it remains scarce. This study examines counterspeech as a user-driven strategy to reduce hate speech. Drawing on theories that suggest adopting the perspective of minority groups can reduce prejudice, we randomized four counterspeech strategies across the senders of 2102 xenophobic Twitter messages. Compared to a passive control group, we find that the pooled effect of the three perspective-centered strategies-traditional perspective-taking, analogical perspective-taking, and perspective getting-increased the likelihood that the sender deleted their xenophobic message by +0.14 SD ([Formula: see text]), decreased the number of likes the xenophobic message received by others (- 0.133 SD, [Formula: see text]), but yielded a limited and not statistically significant estimate for the share of xenophobic messages the sender posted over the following four weeks (- 0.084 SD, [Formula: see text]). Differences between the three perspective-centered strategies were generally small and not statistically significant, though analogical perspective-taking-encouraging senders to compare their own experiences of being attacked online with their discriminatory behavior toward outgroups-appears to have slightly larger effects across multiple outcomes. Disapproval messages without a perspective shift produced smaller and non-significant estimates. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of how counterspeech works and provide actionable insights for how users can contribute to reducing intergroup hostility and its amplification online-especially at a time when many platforms are scaling back content moderation.

Indexed as

HateMinority GroupsPrejudiceSocial MediaAdultFemaleHostilityHumansMaleCounterspeechField experimentHate speechSocial media

Identifiers

PMID40593002
PMCPMC12215266

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.