Department of Sociology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Institute of Delinquency and Crime Prevention, Department of Social Work, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2023 Jul;26(7):519-526. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2022.0185. Epub 2023 Jun 19.
The growing challenge of digital hate speech requires an understanding of its complexity, scale, and impact. Research on experiencing digital hate speech has so far been limited to the roles of personal victim, observer, and perpetrator, with a focus on young people. However, research on hate crimes suggests that vicarious victimization may also be relevant due to its negative impacts. In addition, the lack of knowledge about the older generation neglects the fact that older people are increasingly seen as vulnerable to digital risks. Therefore, this study introduces vicarious victimization as an additional role in research on digital hate speech. Prevalence rates for the four roles are examined across the life span, using a nationally representative sample of adult Internet users in Switzerland. Additionally, all roles are correlated with life satisfaction and loneliness, two stable indicators of subjective well-being. The results show that in this national population, personal victimization and perpetration are less common (<7 percent), whereas observation and vicarious victimization are more common (>40 percent). Prevalence decreases with age in all roles. As expected, multivariate analyses show that both forms of victimization are negatively related to life satisfaction and positively related to loneliness, with these effects being stronger for personal victimization. Similarly, being an observer and being a perpetrator correlate negatively, but not significantly, with well-being. This study contributes to a theoretical and empirical distinction between personal and vicarious victims and provides insight into their effects on well-being in a population largely unexplored in terms of age and national representativeness.
数字仇恨言论日益增多，需要我们了解其复杂性、规模和影响。目前，有关经历数字仇恨言论的研究仅限于个人受害者、观察者和肇事者的角色，且主要关注年轻人。然而，仇恨犯罪研究表明，由于其负面影响，替代性受害也可能相关。此外，由于缺乏对老年群体的了解，人们忽视了这样一个事实，即老年人越来越容易受到数字风险的影响。因此，本研究将替代性受害作为数字仇恨言论研究中的一个额外角色。本研究使用瑞士全国性的成年互联网用户代表性样本，在整个生命周期内考察了这四个角色的流行率，并将所有角色与生活满意度和孤独感这两个主观幸福感的稳定指标进行了相关分析。结果表明，在这个全国性人群中，个人受害和加害的情况较少（<7%），而观察和替代性受害的情况较多（>40%）。所有角色的流行率都随年龄增长而降低。正如预期的那样，多元分析表明，两种形式的受害都与生活满意度呈负相关，与孤独感呈正相关，个人受害的影响更强。同样，作为观察者和加害者与幸福感呈负相关，但不显著。本研究有助于在理论和实证上区分个人受害和替代性受害，并深入了解它们对人口的幸福感的影响，而这在年龄和国家代表性方面在很大程度上尚未得到探索。
