Cover not available

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

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Which verbal de-escalation strategies are most effective for bystanders in online conflicts?

ORCiD logo with link | Radboud UniversityNijmegen, The Netherlands
 | Radboud UniversityNijmegen, The Netherlands
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Radboud University Nijmegen.

Published online: 5 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00138.mul
Abstract
This study explores the effectiveness of verbal de-escalation strategies in reducing social media outrage, particularly focusing on bystanders’ roles in mitigating aggression from hostile posters. Based on the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), four response styles — two divergent, one convergent, and one maintaining — were evaluated. This theory suggests that an adapting communication style (convergence) should reduce hostility differently from diverging or maintaining styles. Eighty-four participants read scenarios involving verbal aggression and responded to a questionnaire on tone, bystander response, and expected outcomes. The results showed that divergent communication, using modality markers (e.g., “maybe,” “could”), was most effective in calming aggressors. Downgraders (e.g., “a little bit”) also reduced aggression, though to a lesser degree. A qualitative analysis of the open-ended question confirmed that modality markers were more successful than other strategies. The study emphasizes the importance of rhetorical choices in managing online conflict.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Bystander intervention
    • 2.2Communication style
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Material and measures: Vignettes
    • 3.3Procedure
    • 3.4Design and statistical analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Quantitative analysis
    • 4.2Qualitative analysis
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Limitations
    • 5.2Theoretical and practical implications
  • Notes
  • References
References (57)
References
Álvarez-Benjumea, Amalia, and Fabian Winter. 2018. “Normative Change and Culture of Hate: An Experiment in Online Environments.” European Sociological Review 34 (3): 223–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baayen, R. H., D. J. Davidson, and D. M. Bates. 2008. “Mixed-Effects Modeling with Crossed Random Effects for Subjects and Items.” Journal of Memory and Language, Special Issue: Emerging Data Analysis, vol. 59 (4): 390–412. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Banyard, Victoria L., Elizabethe G. Plante, and Mary M. Moynihan. 2004. “Bystander Education: Bringing a Broader Community Perspective to Sexual Violence Prevention.” Journal of Community Psychology 32 (1): 61–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berger, Jonah, and Chip Heath. 2008. “Who Drives Divergence? Identity Signaling, Outgroup Dissimilarity, and the Abandonment of Cultural Tastes.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95 (3): 593. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloch, Charlotte, Lasse Suonperä Liebst, Poul Poder, Jasmin Maria Christiansen, and Marie Bruvik Heinskou. 2018. “Caring Collectives and Other Forms of Bystander Helping Behavior in Violent Situations.” Current Sociology 66 (7): 1049–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinkman, Britney G., Angela M. Dean, Christine K. Simpson, Meredith McGinley, and Lee A. Rosén. 2015. “Bystander Intervention During College Women’s Experiences of Gender Prejudice.” Sex Roles 72 (11): 485–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burgers, Christian, and Margot Van Mulken. 2017. “Humor Markers.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burgoon, Judee K., Norah E. Dunbar, and Howard Giles. 2017. “Interaction Coordination and Adaptation.” In Social Signal Processing, edited by Alessandro Vinciarelli, Judee K. Burgoon, Maja Pantic, and Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burgoon, Judee K., and AS Ebesu Hubbard. 2005. “Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Applications of Expectancy Violations Theory and Interaction Adaptation Theory.” Theorizing about Intercultural Communication, 149–71.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burgoon, Michael, Vickie Pauls, and Enning Roberts Laura. 2002. “Language Expectancy Theory.” In The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications, Inc. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coe, Kevin, Kate Kenski, and Stephen A. Rains. 2014. “Online and Uncivil? Patterns and Determinants of Incivility in Newspaper Website Comments.” Journal of Communication 64 (4): 658–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coolidge, Andrew A., Carolyn Montagnolo, and Salvatore Attardo. 2023. “Comedic Convergence: Humor Responses to Verbal Irony in Text Messages.” Language Sciences 99 (September): 101566. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2011. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Czopp, Alexander M., Margo J. Monteith, and Aimee Y. Mark. 2006. “Standing up for a Change: Reducing Bias through Interpersonal Confrontation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90 (5): 784–803. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Cristian, Michael Gamon, and Susan Dumais. 2011. “Mark My Words!: Linguistic Style Accommodation in Social Media.” Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on World Wide Web, 745–754. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Cristian, and Lillian Lee. 2011. “Chameleons in Imagined Conversations: A New Approach to Understanding Coordination of Linguistic Style in Dialogs.” arXiv:1106.3077. Preprint, arXiv, June 15. [URL]
Dews, Shelly, Joan Kaplan, and Ellen Winner. 1995. “Why Not Say It Directly? The Social Functions of Irony.” Discourse Processes 19 (3): 347–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dragojevic, Marko, Jessica Gasiorek, and Howard Giles. 2016. “Accommodative Strategies as Core of the Theory.” In Communication Accommodation Theory: Negotiating Personal Relationships and Social Identities across Contexts, edited by Howard Giles. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Core. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ejbye-Ernst, Peter, Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard, and Wim Bernasco. 2022. “How to Stop a Fight — A Qualitative Video Analysis of How Third-Parties de-Escalate Real-Life Interpersonal Conflicts in Public.” Psychology of Violence (US) 121: 84–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farzadnia, Sina, and Howard Giles. 2015. “Patient-Provider Interaction: A Communication Accommodation Theory Perspective.” International Journal of Society, Culture and Language 3 (2): 17–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferrara, Emilio, and Zeyao Yang. 2015. “Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media.” PLOS ONE 10 (11): e0142390. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuoli, Matteo, and Monika Bednarek. 2022. “Emotional Labor in Webcare and beyond: A Linguistic Framework and Case Study.” Journal of Pragmatics 191 (April): 256–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gasiorek, Jessica, and Howard Giles. 2013. “Accommodating the Interactional Dynamics of Conflict Management.” Iranian Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 11: 10–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gasiorek, Jessica, Ann Weatherall, and Bernadette Watson. 2021. “Interactional Adjustment: Three Approaches in Language and Social Psychology.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 40 (1): 102–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibson, Anna. 2019. “Free Speech and Safe Spaces: How Moderation Policies Shape Online Discussion Spaces.” Social Media + Society 5 (1): 2056305119832588. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, Howard. 2008. “Communication Accommodation Theory: ‘When in Rome …’ or Not!” In Engaging Theories in Interpersonal Communication: Multiple Perspectives, by pages 161–174 and pages 161–174. SAGE Publications, Inc. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Communication Accommodation Theory: Negotiating Personal Relationships and Social Identities across Contexts. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, Nikolas Coupland, and Justine Coupland. 1991. “Accommodation Theory: Communication, Context, and Consequence.” In Contexts of Accommodation: Developments in Applied Sociolinguistics, edited by Howard Giles, Justine Coupland, and Nikolas Coupland. Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, America L. Edwards, and Joseph B. Walther. 2023. “Communication Accommodation Theory: Past Accomplishments, Current Trends, and Future Prospects.” Language Sciences 991 (September): 101571. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hancock, Jeffrey T., Kailyn Gee, Kevin Ciaccio, and Jennifer Mae-Hwah Lin. 2008. “I’m Sad You’re Sad: Emotional Contagion in CMC.” Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (New York, NY, USA), CSCW ’08, November 8, 295–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hangartner, Dominik, Gloria Gennaro, Sary Alasiri, et al. 2021. “Empathy-Based Counterspeech Can Reduce Racist Hate Speech in a Social Media Field Experiment.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (50): e2116310118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herhausen, Dennis, Lauren Grewal, Krista Hill Cummings, Anne L. Roggeveen, Francisco Villarroel Ordenes, and Dhruv Grewal. 2023. “Complaint De-Escalation Strategies on Social Media.” Journal of Marketing 87 (2): 210–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hewett, David G., Bernadette M. Watson, and Cindy Gallois. 2015. “Communication between Hospital Doctors: Underaccommodation and Interpretability.” Language & Communication, Recent developments in Communication Accommodation Theory: Innovative contexts and applications, vol. 41 (March): 71–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickey, Daniel, Daniel M. T. Fessler, Kristina Lerman, and Keith Burghardt. 2025. “X under Musk’s Leadership: Substantial Hate and No Reduction in Inauthentic Activity.” PLOS ONE 20 (2): e0313293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyers, Lauri L. 2010. “Alternatives to Silence in Face-to-Face Encounters with Everyday Heterosexism: Activism on the Interpersonal Front.” Journal of Homosexuality 57 (4): 539–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iginio, Gagliardone, Gal Danit, Alves Thiago, and Martinez Gabriela. 2015. Countering Online Hate Speech. UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z., ed. 2017. “Ritual and Politeness Research.” In Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z., and Juliane House. 2022. “Aggression and Its (de)Escalation in Mediatised Rites of Aggression.” Language & Communication 87 (November): 123–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel Z., and Rosina Márquez-Reiter. 2015. “(Im)Politeness and (Im)Morality: Insights from Intervention.” Journal of Politeness Research 11 (2): 239–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kane, Aimée A., Lyn M. van Swol, and Irene G. Sarmiento-Lawrence. 2023. “Emotional Contagion in Online Groups as a Function of Valence and Status.” Computers in Human Behavior 139 (February): 107543. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Machackova, Hana, and Jan Pfetsch. 2016. “Bystanders’ Responses to Offline Bullying and Cyberbullying: The Role of Empathy and Normative Beliefs about Aggression.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 57 (2): 169–76. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Margolin, Drew B., Aniko Hannak, and Ingmar Weber. 2018. “Political Fact-Checking on Twitter: When Do Corrections Have an Effect?” Political Communication 35 (2): 196–219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mavandadi, V., Peter Bieling, and V. Madsen. 2016. “Effective Ingredients of Verbal De-Escalation: Validating an English Modified Version of the ‘De-Escalating Aggressive Behaviour Scale.’” Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 23 (6–7): 357–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McHugh, Mary L. 2012. “Interrater Reliability: The Kappa Statistic.” Biochemia Medica 22 (3): 276–82. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Courtney, Sophie Cohen, Daniel Klug, Bogdan Vasilescu, and Christian Kästner. 2022. “‘Did You Miss My Comment or What?’ Understanding Toxicity in Open Source Discussions.” 2022 IEEE/ACM 44th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), May, 710–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mulken, Margot van. 2024. “What Verbal De-Escalation Techniques Are Used in Complaint Handling?” Journal of Pragmatics 220 (January): 116–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munger, Kevin. 2017. “Tweetment Effects on the Tweeted: Experimentally Reducing Racist Harassment.” Political Behavior 39 (3): 629–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nelson, Jacqueline K., Kevin M. Dunn, and Yin Paradies. 2011. “Bystander Anti-Racism: A Review of the Literature.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 11 (1): 263–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pfeffer, Juergen, T. Zorbach, and Kathleen M. Carley. 2014. “Understanding Online Firestorms: Negative Word-of-Mouth Dynamics in Social Media Networks.” Journal of Marketing Communications 20 (1–2): 117–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Price, Owen, and John Baker. 2012. “Key Components of De-Escalation Techniques: A Thematic Synthesis.” International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 21 (4): 310–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rösner, Leonie, and Nicole C. Krämer. 2016. “Verbal Venting in the Social Web: Effects of Anonymity and Group Norms on Aggressive Language Use in Online Comments.” Social Media + Society 2 (3): 2056305116664220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Srnka, Katharina J., and Sabine T. Koeszegi. 2007. “From Words to Numbers: How to Transform Qualitative Data into Meaningful Quantitative Results.” Schmalenbach Business Review 59 (1): 29–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, Karee, Anne Pedersen, and Yin Paradies. 2014. “It’s Always Good to Help When Possible, BUT…: Obstacles to Bystander Anti-Prejudice.” The International Journal of Diversity in Education 13 (3): 39–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tagg, Caroline, Philip Seargeant, and Amy Aisha Brown. 2017. Taking Offence on Social Media. Springer International Publishing. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vladimirou, Dimitra, Juliane House, and Dániel Z. Kádár. 2021. “Aggressive Complaining on Social Media: The Case of #MuckyMerton.” Journal of Pragmatics 177 (May): 51–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walther, Joseph B. 2022. “Social Media and Online Hate.” Current Opinion in Psychology 45 (June): 101298. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Yan Bing, Jake Harwood, Cameron Piercy, Ning Liu, and Racheal Ruble. 2023. “Accommodation, Social Attraction, and Intergroup Attitudes on Social Media: The Effects of Outgroup Self-Presentation and Ingroup Accommodation.” Language Sciences 99 (September): 101563. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue