Countering online abuse of politicians through information about consequences and norms

In recent years, a growing body of research has documented how both local and national politicians experience insults, sexism, and even threats on social media platforms. Studies show that such online abuse can have serious democratic consequences and negatively impact politicians’ mental health and wellbeing. We investigate whether online abuse directed at politicians can be countered by providing citizens with information regarding such abuse. Specifically, we examine whether information about how abusive comments (1) hurt individual politicians, (2) violate social norms, and (3) undermine democratic quality can influence citizens’ abuse tolerance and their willingness to engage in behaviours that counter online abuse on social media. We test our preregistered hypotheses in a survey experiment using a sample of 2000 Danish citizens. Our results show that information about consequences and norms regarding online abuse does not significantly affect citizens’ tolerance of abusive online behaviour. However, it can increase citizens’ willingness to engage in behaviours that counter instances of online abuse, such as writing a comment to support the targeted politician or reporting the abusive comment to the social media site.