Immigration-related socio-cognitive dynamics driving digital hate: a four-country study on online incivility and intolerance perpetration

Abstract Amid crises, immigration-related digital hate is rising. When perpetrators attempt to rationalize their actions, various socio-cognitive dynamics activate. We theorize that immigration-related moral disengagement serves as the key mechanism between perceived immigration threats and digital hate perpetration (i.e., online incivility and intolerance). Also, we argue that constant victimization perceptions amplify this process. Using cross-sectional survey data from quota samples in Austria, France, Hungary, and Sweden (N = 4041), we tested path models. Findings reveal that moral disengagement mediates associations between perceived immigration threat and both types of digital hate across all countries. Trait victimhood directly predicts intolerance across countries and incivility in all countries but Austria. Additionally, trait victimhood moderates the relationship between moral disengagement and intolerance in all countries, while this effect is absent for incivility in Hungary. These results highlight how self-perceived victimization facilitates rationalizing xenophobic digital hate, suggesting that addressing victimhood narratives is essential to its reduction.