Digital she-nanigans: Social media users’ response toward online hostilities targeting a female science communicator with marginalized identities

Online hostility poses a growing societal challenge, yet quantitative evidence on how social media users respond to different kinds of hostility targeting different identities is limited, even though insights into bystander perceptions are detrimental to combat the online hate endemic. This online experiment (N = 461) examines cognitive (perceived acceptability), affective (negative emotions), and behavioral (intervention intentions) responses to varyingly hostile comments (impolite vs uncivil vs intolerant) directed at a female science communicator with different ethnic (Black vs White) and LGBTQIA+ identity cues (heterosexual vs homosexual vs trans), thus shedding light on intersectional identities comprising social group affiliations with varying levels of marginalization. While intolerance triggered stronger emotional reactions than impoliteness and incivility (likely due to its discriminatory nature), participants were, somewhat paradoxically, more inclined to act (and advocated for more institutional action) against incivility. Furthermore, ethnic cues had a much stronger influence than LGBTQIA+ identity cues across response domains.