Effects of Preemptive Empathy Interventions on Reply Toxicity among Highly Active Social Media Users

Can we reduce toxicity in online communication using behavioral interven- tions? Following the theoretical turn towards the role of empathy for demo- cratic discourse, this preregistered survey experiment tests various changes in an online discussion environments’ user interface (nudges) and an educa- tive intervention targeting users’ motivation to engage in empathy (boost) to reduce reply toxicity. Participants were recruited via Facebook Ads in the United States and Germany to acquire a sample of N = 2,154 highly active social media users. Based on their reported political attitudes, participants were asked to comment on social media statements they likely disagree with. Compared to the control group, neither the empathy or perspective taking nudges nor the friction placebo reduced reply toxicity. Boosting decreased reply toxicity to some degree but the effect was not robust against the inclu- sion of covariates. However, all nudging interventions significantly increased the length of replies. Overall, toxicity was highest among people with high online activity. While reducing toxicity online does not seem to work via simple changes in the user interface (nudging), more complex interventions (boosting) appear more promising to preemptively reduce toxicity before important voices are forced out of the public discourse online.