U K Schmid
Biographic Data
| ID | 68675 |
|---|---|
| NAME | U K Schmid |
| GIVEN NAMES | U K |
| FAMILY NAME | Schmid |
| SIGNATURE | SCHMID U K |
| AFFILIATIONS | LMU Klinikum |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1892-002X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
It Doesn’t Take Extremes to Trigger Hate: A Mixed-Methods Study on Meme Extremity and User Comments on 9GAG
Users engage with socially and politically relevant topics by sharing memes and adopting the creative styles of meme-sharing platforms like 9GAG. Although memes can contain political critique, research also linked them to hate speech and increasingly extreme content. Little attention has been paid to entertainment-first platforms, where (perceived) homogeneity, anonymity, and humor-driven social norms may shape how political and hateful content i…
Too Difficult to Report? User Experiences With DSA and Community Guideline Reporting on Social Media
User reporting of norm‐violating content on social media is a crucial component of platform governance. While prior research has explored the motivations behind reporting—often drawing on the Bystander Intervention Model —less attention has been paid to how users navigate the processes involved. This process‐oriented perspective has become particularly important in light of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), which enables dual repor…
Subtle cues, major shifts: Eye-tracking insights on how fear and humor legitimize hostility on social media
Expressions of hostility are widespread online, occurring not only in explicit but even more so in implicit forms. In this study, we trace the subtle yet lasting harmful potential of two prevalent implicit forms of online hostility—fear speech and derogatory humor—by examining their perceived acceptability and legitimacy. We argue that both forms are more compatible with mainstream discourse than explicit hate and function as manifestations of sy…
Pay it Forward? How Target Group and Social Norms Affect Online Bystander Intervention
Hate speech is pervasive on social media. Because such incidents can harm targets and foster hostile discourses, understanding what shapes bystander intervention is crucial. In two consecutive experimental studies, we examined how two key situational factors impact actual bystander intervention behavior: the reference group of the online hate speech (professional vs. minority group) and the platforms’ communication norm (prosocial supportive vs. …
The Thin Line Between Harmful and Benign: Perceptions of Humorous and Non-Humorous Hate Speech in Humorous and Neutral Social Media Contexts
Humor has the potential to disguise norm-violating content such as hate speech, potentially prompting recipients to interpret it as less harmful. However, the influence of social media environments and their normative cues in shaping these perceptions has largely been disregarded. This study applies Benign Violation Theory to investigate how hate speech content styles (humorous vs. non-humorous), social media contexts (humorous vs. neutral), and …
Memes, humor, and the far right’s strategic mainstreaming
The far right is increasingly relying on visual and less extreme online communication, for instance by using memes, to strategically mainstream their ideology. The use of humor in particular renders their communication more relatable to a mainstream audience. However, little is known about the actual impacts of the different content characteristics they employ to become more appealing, in particular on less moderated platforms that function as sa…
The Remote Self-Confrontation Interview Method: Gaining Insights into Users' Perceptions of Digital Media Content from a Distance
For researchers interested in studying users' perceptions and immediate reactions to digital media content-even from a distance-this article introduces the remote self-confrontation interview method . This adapted version of the self-confrontation interview method uses videoconferencing software and combines four interrelated steps: First, participants are observed scrolling through/using a stimulus, which allows the assessment of attention, emot…
Empowerment Is Key? How Perceived Political and Critical Digital Media Literacy Explain Direct and Indirect Bystander Intervention in Online Hate Speech
Hate speech is widespread in digital media, and such incidents can harm individuals and fuel hostile discourses. Therefore, understanding the factors that shape bystander intervention is crucial. Despite frequent calls for more research, there is a need for greater understanding of how perceived political and digital media literacy are related to the frequency of various forms of online bystander intervention, such as counter-speech or reporting.…
Social Media Users' Motives for (Not) Engaging With Hate Speech: An Explorative Investigation
Despite extensive research on what causes social media users to recognize hate speech and what motivates their reactions to it, little is known about a crucial intermediate step that leads to users' engagement or non-engagement with hate speech online. In our study, drawing on the uses and gratifications approach, we theoretically derived motives representing affective and entertainment, personal identity and social-integrative as well as cogniti…
Who cares? How personal political characteristics are related to online counteractions against hate speech
Although many Internet users have encountered hate speech online, interventions against those incidents are unlikely. To learn more about online counteractions against hate speech, which we conceptualize as a form of online civic participation, we conducted an online survey representing adult German Internet users (N = 2,691). We investigated what distinguishes users who intervene against hate speech, focusing on associations between citizens' pr…
Too civil to care? How online hate speech against different social groups affects bystander intervention
A large share of online users has already witnessed online hate speech. Because targets tend to interpret such bystanders’ lack of reaction as agreement with the hate speech, bystander intervention in online hate speech is crucial as it can help alleviate negative consequences. Despite evidence regarding online bystander intervention, however, whether bystanders evaluate online hate speech targeting different social groups as equally uncivil and,…
Humorous hate speech on social media: A mixed-methods investigation of users’ perceptions and processing of hateful memes
Humor that denigrates social groups can be just as harmful as hate speech. Despite research indicating the prevalence of humorous hate speech, how audiences perceive and process the combination of humor (e.g. irony as a humor cue) and hate speech (e.g. dehumanization as a hate cue) remains unclear. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach combining a qualitative think-aloud study (Study 1, N = 41) with an experiment involving implicit measuremen…
How social media users perceive different forms of online hate speech: A qualitative multi-method study
Although many social media users have reported encountering hate speech, differences in the perception between different users remain unclear. Using a qualitative multi-method approach, we investigated how personal characteristics, the presentation form, and content-related characteristics influence social media users’ perceptions of hate speech, which we differentiated as first-level (i.e. recognizing hate speech) and second-level perceptions (i…
How social media users perceive different forms of online hate speech: A qualitative multi-method study
Although many social media users have reported encountering hate speech, differences in the perception between different users remain unclear. Using a qualitative multi-method approach, we investigated how personal characteristics, the presentation form, and content-related characteristics influence social media users’ perceptions of hate speech, which we differentiated as first-level (i.e. recognizing hate speech) and second-level perceptions (i…
Humorous hate speech on social media: A mixed-methods investigation of users’ perceptions and processing of hateful memes
Humor that denigrates social groups can be just as harmful as hate speech. Despite research indicating the prevalence of humorous hate speech, how audiences perceive and process the combination of humor (e.g. irony as a humor cue) and hate speech (e.g. dehumanization as a hate cue) remains unclear. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach combining a qualitative think-aloud study (Study 1, N = 41) with an experiment involving implicit measuremen…
Who cares? How personal political characteristics are related to online counteractions against hate speech
Although many Internet users have encountered hate speech online, interventions against those incidents are unlikely. To learn more about online counteractions against hate speech, which we conceptualize as a form of online civic participation, we conducted an online survey representing adult German Internet users (N = 2,691). We investigated what distinguishes users who intervene against hate speech, focusing on associations between citizens' pr…
How social media users perceive different forms of online hate speech: A qualitative multi-method study
Although many social media users have reported encountering hate speech, differences in the perception between different users remain unclear. Using a qualitative multi-method approach, we investigated how personal characteristics, the presentation form, and content-related characteristics influence social media users’ perceptions of hate speech, which we differentiated as first-level (i.e. recognizing hate speech) and second-level perceptions (i…
Too civil to care? How online hate speech against different social groups affects bystander intervention
A large share of online users has already witnessed online hate speech. Because targets tend to interpret such bystanders’ lack of reaction as agreement with the hate speech, bystander intervention in online hate speech is crucial as it can help alleviate negative consequences. Despite evidence regarding online bystander intervention, however, whether bystanders evaluate online hate speech targeting different social groups as equally uncivil and,…
Humorous hate speech on social media: A mixed-methods investigation of users’ perceptions and processing of hateful memes
Humor that denigrates social groups can be just as harmful as hate speech. Despite research indicating the prevalence of humorous hate speech, how audiences perceive and process the combination of humor (e.g. irony as a humor cue) and hate speech (e.g. dehumanization as a hate cue) remains unclear. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach combining a qualitative think-aloud study (Study 1, N = 41) with an experiment involving implicit measuremen…
Social Media Users' Motives for (Not) Engaging With Hate Speech: An Explorative Investigation
Despite extensive research on what causes social media users to recognize hate speech and what motivates their reactions to it, little is known about a crucial intermediate step that leads to users' engagement or non-engagement with hate speech online. In our study, drawing on the uses and gratifications approach, we theoretically derived motives representing affective and entertainment, personal identity and social-integrative as well as cogniti…
Who cares? How personal political characteristics are related to online counteractions against hate speech
Although many Internet users have encountered hate speech online, interventions against those incidents are unlikely. To learn more about online counteractions against hate speech, which we conceptualize as a form of online civic participation, we conducted an online survey representing adult German Internet users (N = 2,691). We investigated what distinguishes users who intervene against hate speech, focusing on associations between citizens' pr…
The Thin Line Between Harmful and Benign: Perceptions of Humorous and Non-Humorous Hate Speech in Humorous and Neutral Social Media Contexts
Humor has the potential to disguise norm-violating content such as hate speech, potentially prompting recipients to interpret it as less harmful. However, the influence of social media environments and their normative cues in shaping these perceptions has largely been disregarded. This study applies Benign Violation Theory to investigate how hate speech content styles (humorous vs. non-humorous), social media contexts (humorous vs. neutral), and …
Memes, humor, and the far right’s strategic mainstreaming
The far right is increasingly relying on visual and less extreme online communication, for instance by using memes, to strategically mainstream their ideology. The use of humor in particular renders their communication more relatable to a mainstream audience. However, little is known about the actual impacts of the different content characteristics they employ to become more appealing, in particular on less moderated platforms that function as sa…
The Remote Self-Confrontation Interview Method: Gaining Insights into Users' Perceptions of Digital Media Content from a Distance
For researchers interested in studying users' perceptions and immediate reactions to digital media content-even from a distance-this article introduces the remote self-confrontation interview method . This adapted version of the self-confrontation interview method uses videoconferencing software and combines four interrelated steps: First, participants are observed scrolling through/using a stimulus, which allows the assessment of attention, emot…
Empowerment Is Key? How Perceived Political and Critical Digital Media Literacy Explain Direct and Indirect Bystander Intervention in Online Hate Speech
Hate speech is widespread in digital media, and such incidents can harm individuals and fuel hostile discourses. Therefore, understanding the factors that shape bystander intervention is crucial. Despite frequent calls for more research, there is a need for greater understanding of how perceived political and digital media literacy are related to the frequency of various forms of online bystander intervention, such as counter-speech or reporting.…
It Doesn’t Take Extremes to Trigger Hate: A Mixed-Methods Study on Meme Extremity and User Comments on 9GAG
Users engage with socially and politically relevant topics by sharing memes and adopting the creative styles of meme-sharing platforms like 9GAG. Although memes can contain political critique, research also linked them to hate speech and increasingly extreme content. Little attention has been paid to entertainment-first platforms, where (perceived) homogeneity, anonymity, and humor-driven social norms may shape how political and hateful content i…
Too Difficult to Report? User Experiences With DSA and Community Guideline Reporting on Social Media
User reporting of norm‐violating content on social media is a crucial component of platform governance. While prior research has explored the motivations behind reporting—often drawing on the Bystander Intervention Model —less attention has been paid to how users navigate the processes involved. This process‐oriented perspective has become particularly important in light of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), which enables dual repor…
Subtle cues, major shifts: Eye-tracking insights on how fear and humor legitimize hostility on social media
Expressions of hostility are widespread online, occurring not only in explicit but even more so in implicit forms. In this study, we trace the subtle yet lasting harmful potential of two prevalent implicit forms of online hostility—fear speech and derogatory humor—by examining their perceived acceptability and legitimacy. We argue that both forms are more compatible with mainstream discourse than explicit hate and function as manifestations of sy…
Pay it Forward? How Target Group and Social Norms Affect Online Bystander Intervention
Hate speech is pervasive on social media. Because such incidents can harm targets and foster hostile discourses, understanding what shapes bystander intervention is crucial. In two consecutive experimental studies, we examined how two key situational factors impact actual bystander intervention behavior: the reference group of the online hate speech (professional vs. minority group) and the platforms’ communication norm (prosocial supportive vs. …
Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection (11 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Social media (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression (5 works) · Humor Studies and Applications (5 works) · Perception (5 works) · World Wide Web (5 works)