In a study based on collected Twitter data from 2013 to 2014, a team of experts at the University of New South Wales uncovered that misogynistic tweets are associated with violence against women.
As highlighted in the journal Psychological Science, the findings showed that the higher the number of misogynistic tweets, the higher the incidences of domestic violence.
The study was conducted in the United States across 47 states.
“This study suggests caution about posting misogynistic hate speech as even if the person who posts is not violent, such posts seem to create an atmosphere where violence toward women may be more likely,” researchers wrote in their findings.
“Our research contributes to this imperative by finding out how social media can help determine where domestic and family violence is likely to occur.”
Looking forward, researchers hope to gather data on the association between misogynistic online posts and social movements led by women.
