Understanding cyberhate: the importance of like-seeking behaviours / <i>Comprendiendo el ciberodio: la importancia de los comportamientos de búsqueda de likes</i>

Abstract

Cyberhate among adolescents is a phenomenon of growing social and scientific concern, finding that teenagers not only receive, send or view it but also deliberately seek it out. This engagement could be associated with online social dynamics, such as seeking likes through normative (e.g., using hashtags) and/or deceptive ways (e.g., buying followers). The aim of this study was to ascertain the prevalence among adolescents of sending, receiving, viewing and seeking cyberhate and to explore whether like-seeking is a precursor to different online practices, according to sex and age. A total of 2,708 adolescents (50.5% girls) aged 12–18 years ( M = 14.65; SD = 1.85) participated. The findings indicate that cyberhate is prevalent, particularly its visual representation. Both types of like-seeking behaviour are associated with involvement in cyberhate, with normative like-seeking mainly linked to viewing and receiving such content, while deceptive like-seeking is mostly related to sending and searching for it, with some sex and age differences. The findings highlight the need for psychoeducational interventions to address normalized online behaviours and the prevention of online hate.