This essay explicates a middle range theory to predict and explain the propagation and magnification of hate messages on social media. It builds upon an assumption that people post hate messages in order to garner signals of social approval from other social media users. It articulates specific propositions involving several constructs, including signals of social approval, disapproval, and sufficiency of social approval. Six derived hypotheses predict how these dynamics apply in certain contexts of social media interaction involving hate posting. It reviews empirical research that applies to these hypotheses, raises issues for future research, and reviews concurrence and distinctions between this approach and other theories.

中文翻译：

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社会认可信号对网络仇恨产生的影响：理论解释


本文阐述了一种中层理论来预测和解释社交媒体上仇恨信息的传播和放大。它建立在这样一个假设之上：人们发布仇恨信息是为了获得其他社交媒体用户的社会认可信号。它阐明了涉及多种结构的具体命题，包括社会认可、不认可和社会认可的充分性的信号。六个衍生假设预测了这些动态如何应用于涉及仇恨帖子的社交媒体互动的某些环境中。它回顾了适用于这些假设的实证研究，提出了未来研究的问题，并回顾了这种方法与其他理论之间的一致性和区别。