Between droughts and water shortages, France experienced major heat waves this summer. Enough to boil the blood of the most temperate minds and exponentially fuel the production of hate speech on the internet, especially on Twitter. This is according to a study published by researchers at the Potsdam Research Institute dedicated to the effects of climate change, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, September 7.
To uncover this finding, scientists used machine learning to analyze more than four billion tweets posted in the United States between 2014 and 2020. Examination of these posts revealed that 75 million of them contained hate speech. The researchers then compared this information with local weather data to see if a correlation could be made.
Scientists have thus noted an increase in the publication of hateful tweets in the United States when temperatures did not range between 12 and 21 degrees.
A universal phenomenon
Another observation: this phenomenon does not escape the richest socioeconomic categories that, however, have the means to buy air conditioners. Generally speaking, temperatures above 30 degrees fuel hate online across all socioeconomic groups, the study says.
Source: BFM TV
