Symptom or Culprit? Social Media, Air Pollution, and Violence
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper provides the first causal evidence that hostile activities online trigger physical violence. Given the recently documented relationship between pollution and social media, I exploit exogenous variation in local air quality as an instrument for online aggression. An event study analysis shows that air pollution increases by 5.8 standard deviations when refineries experience unexpected malfunctions. On pollution spike days, surrounding areas see 0.11 standard deviation more aggressive tweets and 0.24 standard deviation more crimes; geographically distant, but socially networked regions see aggressive tweets increase by 0.008 standard deviation and crimes by 0.015 standard deviation. My findings highlight the impacts of online hostility and contribute to the debate on cyberspace regulation.
Source: The Economic Journal
DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueag024
Author: Xinming Du
Institution: National University of Singapore
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7130388668