Pre-registered Online Experiment Research Articles

Affective prediction errors in persistence and escalation of aggression.

People generally empathize with others and find harm aversive. Yet aggression, for example, between groups, abounds. How do people learn to overcome this aversion in order to aggress? Many models of learning emphasize outcome prediction errors-deviations from expected outcomes in the environment-but aggression may also be fueled by affective prediction errors (affective PEs)-deviations from how we expect to feel. Across five preregistered online experiments that hold outcome prediction errors constant (N = 4,607), participants choosing aggressive or nonaggressive actions aggressed more against disliked group members and often escalated or persisted in taking actions that felt better than expected (positive affective PE), especially when those actions were aggressive. Crucially, inducing incidental empathy toward the group of the target rendered affective PE signals sensitive to group identification-participants escalated aggression that felt better than expected relatively less toward liked versus disliked group members. That said, affective PEs did not always add explanatory power beyond levels of postoutcome affect alone; we discuss the importance and implications of these results. In summary, we reveal affective PE integration as a candidate algorithm facilitating exceptions to harm aversion in intergroup conflict. More broadly, we highlight for affective science and decision-making researchers the necessity of appropriately testing separable components of affective signals in predicting subsequent behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

How dare we? The relation between language use, global identity, and climate activism

Identifying with and caring for people all over the world (i.e., a global identity) is positively related to pro-environmental behaviour. However, less is known how to foster such a global identity. Drawing on social identity theory, we investigated whether using inclusive (vs. exclusive) language in the context of demonstrations for climate protection increases people’s global identity. Moreover, we examined whether inclusive language use strengthens people’s intentions to engage in pro-environmental activism and their pro-environmental policy support, while reducing their denial of climate change implications, through a heightened global identity. In our pre-registered online experiment with a convenience sample mostly living in Germany (N = 307), we found no significant impacts of language use. Language effects did also not depend on people’s prior identification with the climate movement. However, our results show that, in line with our assumptions, the stronger people’s global identity, the more they intended to become pro-environmentally active, the more they supported pro-environmental policies, and the less they denied their impact on climate change.

Detecting Respondent Burden in Online Surveys: How Different Sources of Question Difficulty Influence Cursor Movements

Online surveys are a widely used mode of data collection. However, as no interviewer is present, respondents face any difficulties they encounter alone, which may lead to measurement error and biased or (at worst) invalid conclusions. Detecting response difficulty is therefore vital. Previous research has predominantly focused on response times to detect general response difficulty. However, response difficulty may stem from different sources, such as overly complex wording or similarity between response options. So far, the question of whether indicators can discriminate between these sources has not been addressed. The goal of the present study, therefore, was to evaluate whether specific characteristics of participants’ cursor movements are related to specific properties of survey questions that increase response difficulty. In a preregistered online experiment, we manipulated the length of the question text, the complexity of the question wording, and the difficulty of the response options orthogonally between questions. We hypothesized that these changes would lead to increased response times, hovers (movement pauses), and y-flips (changes in vertical movement direction), respectively. As expected, each manipulation led to an increase in the corresponding measure, although the other dependent variables were affected as well. However, the strengths of the effects did differ as expected between the mouse-tracking indices: Hovers were more sensitive to complex wording than to question difficulty, while the opposite was true for y-flips. These results indicate that differentiating sources of response difficulty might indeed be feasible using mouse-tracking.

When stimulus variability accelerates the learning of task knowledge in adults and school-aged children.

Experience with instances that vary in their surface features helps individuals to form abstract task knowledge, leading to transfer of that knowledge to novel contexts. The current study sought to examine the role of this variability effect in how adults and school-aged children learn to engage cognitive control. We focused on the engagement of cognitive control in advance (proactive control) and in response to conflicts (reactive control) in a cued task-switching paradigm, and conducted four preregistered online experiments with adults (Experiment 1A: N = 100, Experiment 1B: N = 105) and 9- to 10-year-olds (Experiment 2A: N = 98, Experiment 2B: N = 97). It was shown that prior task experience of engaging reactive control makes both adults and 9- to 10-year-olds respond more slowly in a subsequent similar-structured condition with different stimuli in which proactive control could have been engaged. 9- to 10-year-olds (Experiment 2B) exhibited more negative transfer of a reactive control mode when uninformative cue and pre-target stimuli, which do not convey task-relevant information, were changed in each block, compared with when they were fixed. Furthermore, adults showed suggestive evidence of the variability effect both when cue and target stimuli were varied (Experiment 1A) and when uninformative cue and pre-target stimuli were varied (Experiment 1B). The collective findings of these experiments provide important insights into the contribution of stimulus variability to the engagement of cognitive control.

Understanding and reducing inappropriate antibiotic use in the context of delayed prescriptions.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat perpetuated by the overprescribing of antibiotics in primary care. One strategy to reduce antibiotic use in this setting is delayed prescribing. However, several psychological factors might undermine its effectiveness. The aim of the study was to test whether different interventions aiming at helping patients to manage diagnostic uncertainty in the period of watchful waiting promote appropriate antibiotic use. We conducted a preregistered online experiment (N = 690 adult participants from the United Kingdom) in which we modeled delayed prescription in a decision task with behavior-contingent incentives. Participants had either a fictional viral or bacterial infection and received interventions that aimed at facilitating symptom monitoring (i.e., passive monitoring) and engaging participants in the task (i.e., active monitoring). Both interventions decreased antibiotic use when the disease was viral. Active monitoring was more efficient in decreasing antibiotic use than passive monitoring. The findings have practical implications for managing uncertainty and fostering appropriate antibiotic use in delayed prescribing situations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Infographics on risks associated with COVID-19 and the willingness to get the AstraZeneca vaccine: two randomized online experiments

BackgroundGermans hesitated to get vaccinated with AstraZeneca in the COVID-19 pandemic after reports of blood clots.MethodsIn two preregistered online experiments with stratified randomization (Study 1 N = 824, Study 2: N = 1,056), we tested whether providing evidence-based benefit-risk information reduces the perceived risk of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the perceived probability of blood clots due to the AstraZeneca vaccine and increases the vaccination intention. In Study 1, participants saw no infographic (control) or one of two infographics (low vs. high exposure risk varied by the underlying incidence rates). Study 2 additionally varied the infographic design displaying the risk information (presented as table, circle icons, or manikin-like icons).ResultsThe infographic decreased the risk perception of the vaccine compared to no infographic (Study 1: Cohens d = 0.31, 95% CI [0.14, 0.48]; Study 2: Cohens d = 0.34, 95% CI [0.06, 0.62]), but it did not influence the perceived probability of blood clots due to the AstraZeneca vaccine (Study 2: Cohens d = 0.05, 95% CI [-0.23, 0.33]). Also, the infographic design did not affect the perceived probability of blood clots (Study 2). The vaccination intention was not affected by viewing the infographic (Study 1: Cohens d = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.13, 0.21]; Study 2: Cohens d = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.24, 0.32]) nor the presented infection rate (Study 1: Cohens d = 0.07, 95% CI [-0.09, 0.24], Study 2: Cohens d = 0.01, 95% CI [-0.12, 0.15]) but by risk perceptions, sociodemographic characteristics, confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine, and preference for alternative vaccines.ConclusionsThe evidence-based benefit-risk information helped putting the risk of vaccinations into perspective. Nevertheless, objective risk information alone did not affect vaccination intention that was low due to the preexisting lacking vaccine confidence.

“How Long Are You Gonna Stay?” Implications of Residents’ Perceptions of Refugees’ Occupational Future Time Perspective in Receiving Countries

AbstractOccupational work is a cornerstone for refugees’ integration in a receiving country, and residents’ perceptions of refugees is a key factor in this process. As compared to migrants in general, refugee migrants have been forced to leave their home country, which should have multiple implications for their integration in receiving countries. In the current study, we investigated whether residents’ perception of migration forcedness affects their expectations about migrants’ occupational future time perspectives (OFTP) in the receiving country, which in turn should correspond to expectations about migrants’ occupational integration efforts. We tested our hypotheses in a preregistered online experiment with N = 190 working adults in Germany (71% women; age: M = 50.26, SD = 10.78). The results confirmed the hypothesized negative relation between perceived migration forcedness and expected OFTP, the hypothesized positive relation between expected OFTP and expected occupational integration efforts, and the hypothesized mediation mechanism of expected OFTP. Overall, our results demonstrate that residents’ perception of migration forcedness and related OFTP are relevant processes that affect the integration of migrants into the labor market of receiving countries.

In masks we trust: explicit and implicit reactions to masked faces vary by political orientation

Previous studies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that wearing a medical-style mask affects whether a stranger’s face is judged as more trustworthy, socially desirable, or likely to be ill. However, given political controversies around mask use, these effects might vary by political orientation. In a pre-registered online experiment, we measured evaluations of trustworthiness, social desirability and perceived illness in masked and unmasked faces by 1241 British and US participants. We included questions on political orientation, along with the implicit online-VAAST approach/avoid task to test reaction times to masked/unmasked faces. There was a medium-sized effect of masks on trustworthiness and a significant interaction with political orientation, in that conservatives found masked faces less trustworthy than did liberals. Participants were quicker to approach masked than unmasked faces, but conservatives were relatively slower than liberals. The effects on trustworthiness suggest that differential moralization of novel social norms can affect how their adherents are evaluated in terms of their suitability for social interactions. Furthermore, the congruence between implicit and explicit methods implies that such differences can have deep-seated effects on reactions.

Primacy effects in the formation of environmental attitudes: The case of mineral exploration

Transitioning to the green economy relies on new developments that may change people's localities and involve certain risks. This study investigates how people form opinions about such developments, using mineral exploration and mining as an example. A representative sample (N = 1000) participated in a pre-registered online experiment. They were randomly assigned to (i) read information supporting or opposing mining, (ii) either state their position on the topic after reading this information or not, (iii) read counterarguments from the opposing perspective presented either alongside the original information or in isolation. We recorded a primacy effect: the first information that participants read biased subsequent opinion. This effect was reinforced when people were prompted to articulate their attitude before being exposed to the counterarguments and when they read counterarguments that integrated information about both risks and benefits of mining. These findings underscore the importance of the first information on the topic one encounters and suggest that opinions formed on the basis of this information can be difficult to change.

Cli-fi videos can increase charitable donations: experimental evidence from the United Kingdom.

Recent research has begun to investigate if climate fiction, or cli-fi, can increase people's support for pro-climate initiatives. Emerging evidence focuses on whether cli-fi stories affect people's self-reported emotions, attitudes, and intentions. Few studies, however, examine the effect of such stories on revealed behavior, and whether the cli-fi story medium, i.e., whether stories are presented in text, audio, or audio-visual format, matters. We investigate the causal effect of cli-fi stories, and the medium through which they are communicated (textual, audio, or audio-visual) on self-reported support for climate policy, individual and collective action intentions, and a revealed measure of charitable donations. In a pre-registered online experiment (n = 1,085 UK adults), participants were randomly assigned to one of 5 conditions - to read scientific information about climate change (scientific information condition), read a story unrelated to the environment (control), read a cli-fi story in which a protagonist took intentional pro-environmental actions (fiction text), listen to the same cli-fi story in audio format (fiction audio), or watch an animation of the cli-fi story (fiction video). When comparing the fiction-text, fact-text, and control conditions, we found that cli-fi stories are not always more effective than alternative climate communications: participants in the fact-text condition reported higher support for climate policies, and intentions of taking individual environmental actions, and negative feelings of sadness, disappointment, and guilt, compared to the text-based control and cli-fi text condition. When comparing the cli-fi media format, we found that cli-fi videos were most effective in increasing pro-environmental charitable donations in an incentivized choice task, and self-reported feelings of happiness, hope, and inspiration. The findings show that scientific information about the climate and climate-fiction have an important place in the climate communications toolkit and can offer distinct pathways to enhance support for policy and behavioral change. Communicators seeking to inspire individual pro-environmental actions can consider telling cli-fi stories in video, which may be more compelling. And communicators seeking to enhance public support for societal changes, via climate policies, may benefit from disseminating scientific information about climate change.

Incentive alignment in anchored MaxDiff yields superior predictive validity

AbstractMaximum Difference Scaling (MaxDiff) is an essential method in marketing concerning forecasting consumer purchase decisions and general product demand. However, the usefulness of traditional MaxDiff studies suffers from two limitations. First, it measures relative preferences, which prevents predicting how many consumers would actually buy a product and impedes comparing results across respondents. Second, market researchers apply MaxDiff in hypothetical settings that might not reveal valid preferences due to hypothetical bias. The first limitation has been addressed by implementing anchored MaxDiff variants. In contrast, the latter limitation has only been targeted in other preference measurement procedures such as conjoint analysis by applying incentive alignment. By integrating anchored MaxDiff (i.e., direct vs. indirect anchoring) with incentive alignment (present vs. absent) in a 2 × 2 between-subjects preregistered online experiment (n = 448), the current study is the first to address both threats. The results show that incentive-aligning MaxDiff increases the predictive validity regarding consequential product choices—importantly—independently of the anchoring method. In contrast, hypothetical MaxDiff variants overestimate general product demand. The article concludes by showcasing how the managerial implications drawn from anchored MaxDiff differ depending on the four tested variants. In addition, we provide the first incentive-aligned MaxDiff benchmark dataset in the field.

Right-Wing Authoritarian Attitudes, Fast-Paced Decision-Making, and the Spread of Misinformation About COVID-19 Vaccines

ABSTRACT Social media played a prominent role in the spread of vaccine-related fake news during the global COVID-19 crisis. Previous work has shown that both trait-related and situational factors influence the spread of fake news on social media. However, we have limited insight into how the specific contextual conditions that shape information processing on social media contribute to the proliferation of misinformation. In this article, we posit that people are more susceptible to spreading misinformation because they engage selectively, briefly, and heuristically with political news on social media. To test our argument, we rely on a pre-registered online experiment conducted in two Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, Hungary and Romania. We designed this experiment to reflect the fast and impulsive decision-making that is characteristic of online behavior on social media platforms. The results support the idea that individuals’ tendency to disseminate fake news is amplified by conditions of fast-paced and impulsive decision-making. The effect is particularly pronounced among respondents with higher right-wing authoritarian attitudes. This suggests that the fast and intuition-reliant nature of decision-making on social media encourages the spread of such misinformation that is in line with individuals’ ideological beliefs, which could increase social polarization in societies.

(when) do counterattitudinal exemplars shift implicit racial evaluations? Replications and extensions of Dasgupta and Greenwald (2001).

Dasgupta and Greenwald (2001) demonstrated that exposure to positive Black exemplars (e.g., Colin Powell) and negative White exemplars (e.g., Jeffrey Dahmer) can reduce implicit pro-White/anti-Black evaluations, as measured by an Implicit Association Test. Here, we report seven preregistered online experiments conducted with volunteer U.S. participants (N = 6,953) that sought to replicate and probe the boundary conditions of this finding. Contrary to expectations, we found no shift in implicit racial evaluations in two close replication attempts (Experiments 1-2). Experiments 3-4 ruled out the possibility of insufficiently strong exemplar valence and subtyping as explanations for the failures to replicate. In Experiment 5, implicit racial evaluations did exhibit malleability in response to two different procedures relying on repeated evaluative pairings and evaluative statements, suggesting that they are capable of change. With insight from these studies, Experiments 6-7 were mounted with modifications to the Dasgupta and Greenwald (2001) procedure. Significant reductions in implicit pro-White/anti-Black evaluations were now observed when race, valence, and the contingency between the two were highlighted. In addition, across all experiments, the magnitude of shift in implicit racial evaluations was significantly predicted by participants' ability to recall the Black-positive and White-negative contingencies experienced during the exemplar exposure task. Together, these data suggest that exposure to counterattitudinal exemplars can shift implicit racial evaluations toward neutrality, but such malleability strongly depends on contingency awareness. We discuss implications for social cognitive theory, theoretically informed debiasing interventions, and different paths toward resolving initial replication failures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Representational shifts: increasing motivation for bottled water through simulation-enhancing advertisements

BackgroundDespite its numerous health benefits, consumers’ daily water consumption is below recommend levels while soft drink consumption remains high. Previous research has shown that the degree to which drinks are cognitively represented in terms of consumption and enjoyment (i.e., through simulations of consumption and reward) predicts desire and intake. Here, we examined whether simulation-enhancing advertisements that frame water in terms of consumption and reward change cognitive representations and increase motivation for a fictitious bottled water.MethodsIn three pre-registered online experiments (Nexp1 = 984; Nexp2 = 786; Nexp3 = 907), UK participants viewed three advertisements that either highlighted the rewarding consumption experience of water (e.g., “Refresh all your senses with this smooth, cool water”; simulation-enhancing ads), the health consequences of drinking water (e.g., “This water takes care of your health”; health-focused ads), or control ads. We assessed cognitive representations of the bottled water with a semantic feature production task, and we coded the words used as consumption and reward features or positive long-term health consequences features. We assessed motivation through ratings of the attractiveness of the water (Exp. 1 only), desire to drink it, and willingness to pay for it (WTP).ResultsIn line with our hypotheses, participants represented the bottled water more in terms of consumption and reward after viewing simulation-enhancing advertisements, and more in terms of positive long-term health consequences after viewing health-focused advertisements. There was no direct effect of advertisement condition on motivation ratings. However, significant indirect effects showed that simulation-enhancing advertisements increased desire and WTP through the proportion of consumption and reward features, whereas health-focused advertisements increased motivation through an increase in the proportion of positive long-term health consequences features. The effects through consumption and reward were stronger.ConclusionsThese findings are consistent with research suggesting that the experience of immediate reward from drinking water underlies intake. Public health interventions should emphasize the enjoyment of drinking water, rather than the long-term health benefits.

Evidence for positive and negative transfer of abstract task knowledge in adults and school-aged children

Engaging cognitive control is essential to flexibly adapt to constantly changing environments. However, relatively little is known about how prior task experience impacts on the engagement of cognitive control in novel task environments. We aimed to clarify how individuals learn and transfer the engagement of cognitive control with a focus on the hierarchical and temporal aspects of task knowledge. Highlighting two distinct cognitive control processes, the engagement of cognitive control in advance (proactive control) and in response to conflicts (reactive control), we conducted six preregistered online experiments with both adults (Experiment 1, 3, and 5: N = 71, N = 108, and N = 70) and 9- to 10-year-olds (Experiment 2, 4, 6: N = 69, N = 108, and N = 70). Using two different experimental paradigms, we demonstrated that prior task experience of engaging reactive control makes adults and 9-to 10-year-olds respond in a reactive way in a subsequent similar-structured condition with different stimuli in which proactive control could have been engaged. This indicates that individuals do learn knowledge about the temporal structure of task goal activation and, on occasion, negatively transfer this knowledge. Furthermore, individuals exhibited these negative transfer effects in a similar-structured condition with different task goals and stimuli, indicating that they learn hierarchically-structured task knowledge. The collective findings suggest a new way of understanding how hierarchical and temporal task knowledge influences the engagement of cognitive control and highlight potential mechanisms underlying the near transfer effects observed in cognitive control training.

Development and validation of the pandemic fatigue scale

The existence and nature of pandemic fatigue–defined as a gradually emerging subjective state of weariness and exhaustion from, and a general demotivation towards, following recommended health-protective behaviors, including keeping oneself informed during a pandemic–has been debated. Herein, we introduce the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and show how pandemic fatigue evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from one panel survey and two repeated cross-sectional surveys in Denmark and Germany (overall N = 34,582). We map the correlates of pandemic fatigue and show that pandemic fatigue is negatively related to people’s self-reported adherence to recommended health-protective behaviors. Manipulating the (de)motivational aspect of pandemic fatigue in a preregistered online experiment (N = 1584), we further show that pandemic fatigue negatively affects people’s intention to adhere to recommended health-protective behaviors. Combined, these findings provide evidence not only for the existence of pandemic fatigue, but also its psychological and behavioral associations.

Repeated response execution and inhibition alter subjective preferences but do not affect automatic approach and avoidance tendencies toward an object.

Repeated action or inaction toward objects changes preferences for those objects. However, it remains unclear whether such training activates approach-avoidance motivation toward the objects, which leads to actual behavior. We conducted a pre-registered online experiment to examine whether approach and avoidance tendencies were affected by the experience of having executed or withheld a button-press response to a stimulus. Participants (N = 236) performed a Go/NoGo task in which they were asked to repeatedly execute a response to a picture of a mug (i.e., Go-primed stimulus) and suppress a response to another picture of a mug (i.e., NoGo-primed stimulus). They then received one of two manikin tasks, which were implicit association tests designed to assess approach-avoidance tendencies. One manikin task measured the reaction times of moving a manikin toward or away from the Go-primed stimulus and the other picture of a mug (i.e., unprimed stimulus). The other manikin task measured the reaction times of moving a manikin toward or away from the NoGo-primed stimulus and the unprimed stimulus. The participants then rated their preference for the Go-primed, NoGo-primed, and unprimed items. The Go-primed item was evaluated as more highly preferable than the unprimed item in the Go condition, while the NoGo-primed item was evaluated as less preferable than the unprimed item in the NoGo condition. In contrast, the mean approach/avoidance reaction times in the manikin task showed no difference between the Go-primed and unprimed stimuli or between the NoGo-primed and unprimed stimuli. When participants repeatedly responded or inhibited their responses to an object, their explicit preference for the object increased or decreased, respectively. However, the effect did not occur in approach-avoidance behaviors toward the object.

Building fraction magnitude knowledge with number lines: Partitioning versus analogy.

Understanding fraction magnitudes is foundational for later math achievement. To represent a fraction x/y, children are often taught to use partitioning: Break the whole into y parts and shade in x parts. Past research has shown that partitioning on number lines supports children's fraction magnitude knowledge more than partitioning on area models. However, partitioning may not take full advantage of children's prior knowledge or the structure of the number line. We tested an alternative fraction number line lesson that leveraged children's preexisting whole number knowledge using a domain-general learning tool: analogy. In a preregistered online experiment, second and third graders (N = 84, M = 8.83 years) were randomly assigned to an analogy lesson (e.g., if I know how big 3 is on a 0-4 line, I know how big ¾ is on a 0-1 line), a partitioning lesson on number lines, or a control lesson using square area models. Results showed that the analogy lesson was more effective for promoting fraction magnitude understanding than the control lesson, and it was at least as effective as the partitioning lesson. The analogy group, but not the partitioning group, significantly outperformed the control group with large-denominator fractions at retention (i.e., 1-week delayed posttest) and on transfer tests (i.e., fraction comparison). We also replicated past findings that fraction partitioning lessons are more effective on number lines than on area models, and this advantage was partially sustained after a 1-week delay. Overall, these findings highlight the power of domain-general analogy to support mathematical development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Modeling the value-based decision to consume alcohol in response to emotional experiences.

Evidence for negative reinforcement of alcohol use is mixed; one possible explanation for this is that people make value-based decisions whether to regulate their emotions via alcohol or an alternative, and only drink-to-cope when alcohol's reinforcing value is larger than that of available alternatives. If this is the case, immediately following a negative emotional event, the value for alcohol should increase primarily in heavy drinkers, whereas in light drinkers, alternative ways of coping should be valued. We conducted a preregistered online experiment (N = 200) with a mixed design (between: heavy vs. light drinker; within: negative/neutral/positive mood induction). In each of three experimental sessions, participants first provided value ratings for a set of alcohol and food stimuli. Second, they were subjected to a mood induction. Third, they made forced choices between either two alcohol or food stimuli. We then applied a drift-diffusion model to these data and tested whether alcohol- and food-related decision-making parameters are differentially affected following the mood inductions in heavy and light drinkers. In preregistered analyses, we found that heavy drinkers did not value alcohol more but valued food less after the negative mood induction. Exploratory analyses uncovered that both heavy- and light-drinking participants valued alcohol more following the negative mood induction if they reported high alcohol craving at the start of the session. Collectively, these results provide some evidence for the idea that drinking-to-cope might be a value-based decision-making process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Can We Counteract Hate? Effects of Online Hate Speech and Counter Speech on the Perception of Social Groups

Hate speech can increase stereotyped thinking and social distancing in a society. However, there is still a lack of variety in the social groups under study and research into possible solutions to the problem. Thus, our aim is to (1) study effects of hate speech against Chinese people and transgender people and (2) to investigate if counter speech can offset the detrimental effects of hate speech. We conducted a pre-registered online experiment with a 2 × 3 between-subject design, varying the attacked group (Chinese people/transgender people) and the type of comments (neutral/hate speech/hate speech and counter speech) for an Austrian sample ( n = 1285). Findings reveal no effect of hate speech on the dependent variables, indicating that citizens might not be as vulnerable to hate speech after all. However, counter speech has a polarizing effect: attitudinal gaps and differences for social distancing increase between left-wing and right-wing participants if hate speech is countered.