Project description
The rise of online misogyny and its impact on youth
Online misogyny has seen a sharp rise in recent years, with harmful ideologies circulating across social media platforms. Influencers within the ‘manosphere’ spread toxic narratives, claiming women are inferior and should be subjugated. There are concerns that these views, often portraying women as illogical and manipulative, fuel harassment and discrimination. However, the long-term effects on the attitudes and behaviour of teenage boys and young men who engage with this content are not yet well understood. In this context, the ERC-funded HATESHIELD project will explore how adolescents interact with online misogyny. Through AI-powered analysis, the project will identify vulnerable age groups, track the impact of exposure on gender attitudes and well-being and develop strategies to educate young people, thereby mitigating its harmful effects.
Objective
In the last 10 years, online misogyny has increased at an alarming rate. Social media influencers within the ‘manosphere’ preach that women are fundamentally inferior to men and ought to be subordinated to them. Women are derogated as innately illogical, greedy and scheming. These attributions are used to justify harassment, coercive control and discrimination. Teenagers, who get much of their news and entertainment from social media, are bombarded with this content on a daily basis. Teachers, parents and elected officials report grave concerns about the ways in which misogynistic influencers are affecting the attitudes of young people, particularly teenage boys.
Developmental psychology provides a solid foundation for understanding the emergence of gender stereotypes and attitudes across childhood. However, it has struggled to keep pace with the rapidly expanding influence of social media and how it is affecting young people. A novel approach is needed. HATESHIELD will uncover the social dynamics of the manosphere and use this understanding to protect young people from its negative influence. The project will achieve four aims. First, use cutting-edge methods from AI to characterise the nature of adolescents’ interaction with online misogyny and pinpoint the age at which they are at greatest risk of exposure. Second, understand how interaction with online misogyny predicts changes in adolescents’ gender attitudes, homophobia and self-worth over time. Third, develop and rigorously evaluate strategies to prepare young adolescents (aged 12 – 13) to critically engage with online misogyny. Finally, develop and rigorously evaluate strategies to mitigate the deleterious effects of online misogyny on young adults (aged 18 – 25) who have already embraced some of its key messages.
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences educational sciences didactics
- social sciences sociology social issues social inequalities
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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YO10 5DD YORK NORTH YORKSHIRE
United Kingdom
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