The Effects of Dehumanizing and Humorous Language in Social Protests on Behavioral Expressions of Support

Abstract

Little is still known about how the language used in social protests affects people’s behavioral expressions of support. This study aims to bridge this gap and investigates the impact of dehumanizing and humorous language employed by protesters in their slogans on the decisions of other individuals to join or openly support such protests. Two experiments were conducted, revealing that exposure to dehumanizing language did not significantly alter the likelihood of supporting protests compared to non-dehumanizing language. However, when combined with humor, dehumanizing language had a positive effect on behavioral expressions of support. In the second experiment we replicated this effect and revealed the mechanism behind it: humor diminished the perceived violence associated with a message containing dehumanizing language, thus increasing the likelihood of individuals acting upon and supporting the social protest. These findings shed light on the factors influencing the varying levels of support observed across different social movements.