Hate in the Tropics: Political Leaders and the Social Acceptability of Online Hate Speech

Diego Marino-Fages and Agustina Martínez-Pozo
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Diego Marino-Fages: Durham University
Agustina Martínez-Pozo: University of Leicester

No 391, Working Papers from Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE)

Abstract: How does the advent of political information influence social norms? This paper examines the impact of Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in the 2018 Brazilian presidential electionon the prevalence of hate speech. We apply Natural Language Processing techniques to detect hate speech in over 37.6 million tweets, and leverage the electoral surprise ofBolsonaro’s victory in a difference-in-differences design. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in online hate speech following the election, particularly in municipalities where Bolsonaro’s vote share was lower—where his local and national support diverged most. The increase is primarily driven by the extensive margin of hate speech and is concentrated in homophobic and sexist content—areas in which Bolsonaro’s rhetoric was highly controversial. Overall, these patterns suggest that the election outcome reshaped perceptions of the social acceptability of expressing hate.

Keywords: Hate speech; Social Media; Social Norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D83 J15 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2026-04
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aoz:wpaper:391

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