EXPLORING SURVEY INSTRUMENTS IN ONLINE HATE SPEECH RESEARCH: A COMPREHENSIVE SCOPING REVIEW

Abstract

Research on online hate speech is burgeoning, highlighting its significant negative consequences on individual and societal levels. Still, there is a lack of attention directed towards understanding the perceptions and experiences of individuals in the general population toward this phenomenon. Such insights could significantly help decision-makers and scholars in formulating initiatives to inform and educate the public, thereby preventing further harm. Therefore, quality insight into the understanding and perceptions of hate speech, as well as related experiences and behaviour is needed. In the absence of established survey instruments and given the fragmented and limited nature of the existing data, the primary objective of this scoping review is to systematically identify online hate speech survey measures, as well as the topics and populations the associated research addressed. Preliminary findings reveal a disproportionate focus on students and young adults and the predominant use of non-representative sampling methods, leaving older population groups under-researched and raising concerns about results’ generalizability. Broad research scopes are predominant; in order to better understand real-world experiences, scholars should aim for more detailed research scopes, including studying OHS in specific online contexts and within specific groups. In terms of topics, existing survey measures mostly cover the topics of direct exposure/perpetration of OHS, neglecting the whole hate speech ecosystem; what comes before and after the dissemination of hate speech online. In terms of question types, ordinal scales are most common, but the lack of standardized scales results in fragmented findings that are difficult to compare.