How white nationalist leaders influence their followers’ rhetoric

By Greg Hardesty

The opening slide of the presentation began with a mug shot of Elliot Rodger, who killed six and injured 14 in the Santa Barbara college community of Isla Vista in 2014 in an act later described by U.S. and international authorities as misogynist terrorism and extremism.

Rodger, police determined, had been radicalized online by white nationalists.

But how?

Analyzing reams of social media posts, Luwei Ying, an assistant professor of political science at UCLA whose research focuses on civil conflict and political violence and quantitative political methodology, provided some insights during a recent presentation before a rapt group of attendees at the USC-hosted event.

Her talk and abstract, “Gateways to White Nationalism: Leaders’ Online Rhetoric and Follower Engagement,” was part of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative, a university-wide research endeavor that brings together faculty and students interested in political economy.

“When we talk about the word ‘extremism,’ it’s almost a cliché to say that people can get radicalized on the Internet,” Ying said. “However, we know very little about how exactly the radicalization process works.”

‘Shaping’ followers

White nationalist leaders’ rhetoric in social media posts “shapes” followers’ rhetoric, Ying’s research concluded.

It remains unclear, however, the degree to which the relationship is causal: Are people who follow and like these posts already predisposed to hate, or do the posts lead them to hate?

“Her research is exciting,” said PIPE Director Jeffery A. Jenkins, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

“Scraping and analyzing social-media data has the potential to provide valuable information on how white nationalism builds and spreads,” added Jenkins, who is also the Maria B. Crutcher Professor of Citizenship and Democratic Values. “Her initial insights are interesting and suggest that we’ll learn more as we develop our understanding of social media’s potential as an organizing device for far-right (and far-left) organizations.”

Ying’s research paper is co-authored with Carly Wayne, an assistant professor in the Political Science Department at Washington University in St. Louis.

Gender as a ‘gateway’ theme

To get a handle on how white nationalist extremist beliefs proliferate, Ying and her research colleagues analyzed a dataset of more than 16.6 million posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Gab (which appeals to far-right groups) from August 2016 to June 2021.

The posts were made by 64 U.S. white nationalist “leaders” as identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center whose actions put them in jail or who committed heinous acts that became public. (They don’t necessarily have huge followings on social media.)

Ying and her colleagues also mined 11,303 follower accounts to get a sense of how such rhetoric engages people and spreads. 

The analysis involved learning a lot of key words used by leaders to spread hateful messages. 

Not surprisingly, Ying’s research concluded that when white nationalist leaders highlighted specific issues, their followers became significantly more likely to post similar content over the next several days.

Looking closer, Ying identified race, religion, and nationalism as three core themes leaders used to influence others.

And she identified “gendered rhetoric” – for example, such misogynistic musings as, “Women are inferior to men” – as having a powerful “gateway appeal.” Indeed, misogynistic postings were even more potent than partisanship, which attracts primarily peripheral followers and leads them to subsequently post more racialized content themselves.

‘Incredibly interesting’

James Hendrickson, a public policy and management PhD student who attended the discussion, said he liked the study’s attempt to mine a massive amount of data to glean insights into how white nationalist extremist beliefs spread. He also suggested that Ying could further investigate how members of the public adopt beliefs that mirror those of white nationalist leaders. 

“I thought the talk went really well and appreciate all the comments,” Ying said. “I really appreciate USC Price for inviting me and look forward to any future opportunity to exchange ideas.”