Why do people insult each other and what are the consequences? The BR podcast “IQ – Wissenschaft und Lehre” (reasearch and science) explored these questions in the episode “Holzkopf! Why we take offence” from 20.01.2025 to get to the bottom of these questions. Host Lukas Grasberger also interviewed Steliyana Doseva, a researcher at the bidt. The researcher spoke about the current study “Insults on social media: How affected are users on social media and how do they fight back?”.
One of the findings was that politicians in particular, but also committed volunteers and journalists, are victims of digital insults and threats. They experience the most insults on Facebook and TikTok. However, the study also shows that those affected still experience insults more frequently in the offline world than in the online world. Doseva explains what this does to those affected:
This is actually also one of the biggest effects on a social level, that people who are very active in civil society, who are very active in politics, simply withdraw from the discourse when they are repeatedly insulted, and no longer want to use platforms, simply because they don't want to be confronted with hate.
Steliyana Doseva To the profile
According to Doseva, it follows that important voices are lost in social debates. This loss also leads to a reduction in the diversity of opinions, which weakens democratic discourse and makes committed people less confident in expressing their opinions and positions.
Podcast (German only)
To the study
