Words as Weapons?When Do They Wound? Investigations of Harmful Speech

Abstract

The following investigations juxtapose jurisprudence and communication literatures to examine under what conditions racist speech is perceived as harmful. Spec$cally, one theory of legal liability, the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, and one intergroup approach, social identify theory, guided three empirical studies investigatingverbally 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. Onejinding 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 ofracism to be more ham&l 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 explanationsfor thisjnding and its resulting legal implications are discussed.

Everyday Victimization of Adolescent Girls by Boys: Sexual Harassment, Bullying or Aggression?

“…(p. 59). This issue can perhaps be considered in the light of social identity theory, which posits that individuals favor members of their own group over outgroup members in order to preserve self-esteem (Hogg and Abrams 1988): the perceived harmfulness of deprecating speech is influenced by in-group and out-group membership (Leets and Giles 1997). In the present study, while boys do recognize the harmfulness of their behaviors to girls (at least, cognitively), they nevertheless have strategies for preserving their self-esteem: first, they minimize the harmful intentions of their in-group by claiming that the boys only mean it in fun; and second, they suggest that the out-group is to blame-the girls take it too seriously.…”

Towards a cross-cultural pragmatic taxonomy of insults

“…Many studies relate insults to politeness or rudeness (cf. Brown and Levinson 1987;Leets and Giles 1997;Irvine 1993). While this relation is not so clear in other languages such as Spanish, some studies have recently been done from this perspective (Stenström and Jörgensen 2008;Martínez Lara 2009).…”

Confronting Hate: Heterosexuals' Responses to Anti-Gay Comments

“…College campuses may be particularly negative environments for gay and lesbian individuals, as heterosexuals routinely use anti-gay language (Burn, 2000;Franklin, 2000). Experiencing verbal harassment in the form of anti-gay hate speech can lead to negative psychological, emotional, and cognitive effects as well as feelings of vulnerability, stress, and fear in victims (D'Augelli, 1992;Garnets, Herek, & Levy, 1990;Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 1999), with some reports demonstrating that the psychological pain associated with verbal harassment from anti-gay hate speech may be worse than that of physical pain (e.g., Leets & Giles, 1997). In addition to the harmful effects of heterosexist comments for same-sex attracted college students, anti-gay speech perpetuates stereotyping and discrimination and creates social norms that anti-gay language is acceptable (Cowan & Mettrick, 2002).…”