The rise of the Internet and social media has allowed individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to communicate with one another in an open and largely unstructured way. One important question is whether the nature of online engagements between groups relates to the nature of encounters between these groups in the real world. We analyzed online conversations that occurred between members of protest groups from opposite sides of the political spectrum, obtained from Facebook event pages used to organize upcoming political protests and rallies in the United States and the United Kingdom and the occurrence of violence during these protests and rallies. Using natural language processing and text analysis, we show that increased engagement between groups online is associated with increased violence when these groups met in the real world. The level of engagement between groups taking place online is substantial, and can be characterized as negative, brief, and low in integrative complexity. These findings suggest that opposing groups may use unstructured online environments to engage with one another in hostile ways. This may reflect a worsening of relationships, in turn explaining the observed increases in physical violence offline. These findings raise questions as to whether unstructured online communication is compatible with positive intergroup contact, and highlights the role that the Internet might play in wider issues of extremism and radicalization.

互联网和社交媒体的兴起，使具有不同背景，经验和观点的个人能够以开放的，很大程度上是非结构化的方式相互交流。一个重要的问题是，群体之间在线互动的性质是否与现实世界中这些群体之间相遇的性质有关。我们分析了来自不同政治派别的抗议团体成员之间的在线对话，这些对话是从Facebook活动页面获得的，该活动页面用于组织即将在美国和英国举行的政治抗议活动和集会以及这些抗议活动和集会期间的暴力发生。使用自然语言处理和文本分析，我们显示，当这些群体在现实世界中见面时，在线群体之间互动度的提高与暴力行为的增加有关。在线上进行的小组之间的互动水平很高，可以被定性为负面，简短和综合复杂性低。这些发现表明，对立的群体可能会使用非结构化的在线环境以敌对的方式相互交流。这可能反映了关系的恶化，进而解释了离线观察到的身体暴力的增加。这些发现提出了有关非结构化在线交流是否与积极的群体间接触兼容的疑问，并突出了互联网可能在极端主义和激进主义的更广泛问题中发挥的作用。并具有负面，简短和综合复杂度低的特点。这些发现表明，对立的群体可能会使用非结构化的在线环境以敌对的方式相互交流。这可能反映了关系的恶化，进而解释了离线观察到的身体暴力的增加。这些发现提出了有关非结构化在线交流是否与积极的群体间接触兼容的疑问，并突显了互联网可能在极端主义和激进化的更广泛问题中发挥的作用。并具有负面，简短和综合复杂度低的特点。这些发现表明，对立的群体可能会使用非结构化的在线环境以敌对的方式相互交流。这可能反映了关系的恶化，进而解释了离线观察到的身体暴力的增加。这些发现提出了有关非结构化在线交流是否与积极的群体间接触兼容的疑问，并突出了互联网可能在极端主义和激进主义的更广泛问题中发挥的作用。反过来解释离线观察到的人身暴力的增加。这些发现提出了有关非结构化在线交流是否与积极的群体间接触兼容的疑问，并突显了互联网可能在极端主义和激进化的更广泛问题中发挥的作用。反过来解释离线观察到的人身暴力的增加。这些发现提出了有关非结构化在线交流是否与积极的群体间接触兼容的疑问，并突显了互联网可能在极端主义和激进化的更广泛问题中发挥的作用。