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Article published In: Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict: Online-First Articles

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Offensive language in reactions to public figures in polarised discourse online

ORCiD logo with link | Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
ORCiD logo with link | Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
ORCiD logo with link | Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
 | Panthéon-Sorbonne University, France
ORCiD logo with link | Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
Published online: 7 October 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00136.kul
Abstract
Offensive language affects contemporary societies by hindering communication and increasing polarisation. In this study, we apply computational linguistics to investigate offensive reactions to public figures in the climate debate on Twitter across their roles and popularity. We also use sentiment analysis to inspect the accuracy of lexical criteria in detecting negative attitudes and examine the types of social media users based on the frequency of offensive content in their posts. With an in-depth, large-scale corpus analysis comprising one million words, we demonstrate that frequent offensiveness in responses to politicians relatively rarely expresses personal attacks, and the popularity of public figures does not always come together with the highest density of offensive reactions. We also show that most users publish predominantly non-abusive posts. The study sets foundations for strategies to be employed to reduce polarisation that constitutes a threat to deliberative democracy.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Related work
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2Data annotation
    • 3.3Procedure of analysis
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Range and intensity of offensiveness do not come together
    • 4.2It is not only about popularity
    • 4.3Reactions can be offensive and positive at the same time
    • 4.4One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
References (73)
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