Words as Weapons?When Do They Wound? Investigations of Harmful Speech
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2269784 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Leets (0000-0001-6873-6119, Stanford University, corresponding author), H Giles (0000-0001-8673-271X, University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 260-301 |
| Publication date | 1997-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Human Communication Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0360-3989 • E-ISSN: 1468-2958 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1997.tb00415.x |
| OpenAlex | W2158634337 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 33 |
| References cited | 109 |
The following investigations juxtapose jurisprudence and communication literatures to examine under what conditions racist speech is perceived as harmful. Specifically, one theory of legal liability, the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, and one intergroup approach, social identity theory, guided three empirical studies investigating verbally disturbing communication targeted at Asian Americans. The studies examined how the attribution of harm was influenced by variables such as group membership, message severity, message explicitness and the medium ofpresentation. One finding in particular, an interaction between group membership and message explicitness (direct vs. indirect), emerged across the three studies. Results revealed that as "objective" evaluators of deprecating speech, out-group members attributed the direct messages of racism to be more harmful than in-group members did, but, conversely, in-group members evaluated the indirect messages of racism to be more harmful than the out-group members did. Theoretical explanations for this finding and its resulting legal implications are discussed
Attribution · Causality (physics · Distress · Empirical research · Epistemology · Harm · Identity (music · Interpersonal communication · Racism · Social group · Social identity theory · Sociology · Clinical Psychology · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
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Homophobic Hate Speech Affects Well-Being of Highly Identified LGBT People
Constructions of Antisemitism on Social Media
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The Effects of Observer Expectations on Judgments of Anti-Asian Hate Tweets and Online Activism Response
Reconceptualizing ‘flaming’ and other problematic messages
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Just world research and the attribution process
Speaker evaluations as a function of speech rate, accent and context
Group membership, social rules, and power
Children's Derogatory Epithets
Facework & Politeness
Affirming and Nonaffirming Style, Dyad Sex, and the Perception of Argumentation and Verbal Aggression in an Interpersonal Dispute
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Speech Evaluation Differences as a Function of Perspective (Participant Versus Observer) and Presentational Medium
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| Unique citing works | 33 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,22 |
| Citation span | 1999 - 2026 (28) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 33 |