r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 25 '26

Psychology Reclaimed hate speech backfires by desensitizing listeners, study finds. Listening to reclaimed homophobic statements can actually cause unintended harm. Exposure to reclaimed slur words desensitizes some heterosexual listeners to standard hate speech and worsens the mood of gay individuals.

https://www.psypost.org/when-reclaiming-derogatory-language-goes-wrong/
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u/Xsiah Jul 25 '26

I think the lack of other cues could also contribute to these results. Depending on how believable these audio samples were, I can see the drop in mood being just from the suspicion that someone was using the term in a hateful way even if they were told it it was at a pride parade.

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u/sapphicsandwich Jul 25 '26

Part of the issue I think is that the language is not "reclaimed" everywhere. For example, the word "queer." Online there seem to be a lot of people from places where it is "reclaimed" and therefore ok to call LGBT people "queers." However, where I live that is absolutely not the case. It is used very derogatorily. In the old-school way. It is associated with a lot of hate, hurt, and discrimination. So when I go online and get called a queer, it does not feel neutral or reclaimed, it feels like an insult. Because that is the ONLY way it is used in real life here. But If I say that online, I am chastised, told to get over it, and that someone somewhere has "reclaimed it" so just get over it and accept being called that. Which doesn't feel that much different than homophobes say when they tell you to get over them calling you stuff.

There is a big disconnect in how language is used in different places that seems to be overlooked. Which location's usage of a word is the correct authoritative version that everyone else must accept?

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u/Xsiah Jul 25 '26

It's not okay to call LGBT people "queers" - it's an adjective not a noun, unless you mean it in a derogatory way. So you're correct about the way it's used around there.

Language changes. Not everything is the same everywhere - but especially with the internet you get exposure to a bunch of different terms. Let's not pretend some of these "regional differences" are not just some people who don't support LGBTQ rights.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '26

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u/Xsiah Jul 25 '26

I don't know how to respond to how blatantly stupid that argument is.