From Words to Harm: Hate Speech and Societal Violence in U.S. Presidential Campaigns

Abstract

Political speeches are typically viewed as mobilizing democratic participation, yet research shows elite political rhetoric—particularly when it contains hate speech—may contribute to societal harm. Our study extends this line of research by investigating the association between hate speech and societal violence from a temporal perspective in the context of U.S. presidential campaigns. We examined the extent to which hate speech was associated with crime incidents across the 2 weeks following a campaign address, spanning multiple crime categories. We found that hate speech was positively and significantly associated with hate crime, property crime, crimes against society, and overall crime, but not with violent crime. These patterns suggest spillover effects of hate speech beyond hate-motivated violence. The association with hate crime emerged after a short delay, whereas associations with other crime categories were more persistent over time. Our study advances understanding of the societal impact of harmful political rhetoric and has practical implications for designing interventions to counter hate speech.