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Can social media rhetoric incite hate incidents? Evidence from Trump's “Chinese Virus” tweets

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  • Cao, Andy
  • Lindo, Jason M.
  • Zhong, Jiee

Abstract

We investigate whether Donald Trump's "Chinese Virus" tweets contributed to the rise of anti-Asian incidents. We find that the number of incidents spiked following Trump's initial “Chinese Virus” tweets and the subsequent dramatic rise in internet search activity for the phrase. Difference-in-differences and event-study analyses leveraging spatial variation indicate that this spike in anti-Asian incidents was significantly more pronounced in counties that supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election relative to those that supported Hillary Clinton. We estimate that anti-Asian incidents spiked by approximately 4200% in Trump-supported counties compared to an increase of approximately 200% in Clinton-supported counties.

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  • Cao, Andy & Lindo, Jason M. & Zhong, Jiee, 2023. "Can social media rhetoric incite hate incidents? Evidence from Trump's “Chinese Virus” tweets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:137:y:2023:i:c:s0094119023000608
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2023.103590
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    Cited by:

    1. Guy Aridor & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Ro'ee Levy & Lena Song, 2024. "The Economics of Social Media," CESifo Working Paper Series 10934, CESifo.
    2. Jiménez Durán, Rafael & Muller, Karsten & Schwarz, Carlo, 2024. "The Effect of Content Moderation on Online and Offline Hate: Evidence from Germany’s NetzDG," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 701, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    3. Carr, Joel & James, Jonathan & Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna & Vujic, Suncica, 2022. "Hate in the Time of COVID-19: Racial Crimes against East Asians," IZA Discussion Papers 15718, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Sabatini, Fabio, 2023. "The Behavioral, Economic, and Political Impact of the Internet and Social Media: Empirical Challenges and Approaches," IZA Discussion Papers 16703, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; Social media; Hate incidents; Trump;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H0 - Public Economics - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General

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