Glee, revenge, and infrahumanization: A natural experiment in the general public’s response to politically violent events

Though politically violent events receive widespread media coverage, how the public copes with such tragedy has been relatively underexplored. In this study, we aim to investigate these themes using a forum in which people of all political stripes can discuss the latest news with one another in a free, open, and community-centered way. Reddit provides the ideal foundation with which to carry out this work. With mostly anonymous users, its community-centered organization via subreddits, and its service as a real-time town square, there is rich and little-studied data that would allow us to understand how community interactions, rhetoric, and discussion are affected by political violence. By better understanding the ways in which such assaults shape our online political connections, we will suggest interventions that could help lower the national temperature and, though a lofty goal, usher in a return to realpolitik rather than partisan warfare.