Following three elections in Germany in September, much has been said about increasing political polarization and divisions within society. CSH’s Mirta Galesic offers insights into how people can respond to hostility without fueling it further.
On September 6, the far-right AfD won the state election in Saxony-Anhalt by a wide margin. Two weeks later, it came first in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while Die Linke won the most votes in Berlin.
The results have added to a broader debate about whether people’s views are becoming increasingly divided, with society pulling into separate camps.
But if that is the case, what can people actually do about it – on an individual level and in practical terms? How can one respond to extreme views and hate – especially online – without fueling them further?
Mirta Galesic, who co-leads the Collective Minds research group at the Complexity Science Hub, studies how people and human collectives form beliefs and how these beliefs can change. Her research offers some insights into what can help, and what may instead make hostile exchanges worse:
What does not help
“Elaborate arguments, excessive emotionality – especially negative emotionality, such as angrily correcting others – or any kind of in-group/out-group rhetoric framing situations as “us” versus “them” can provoke even more hostility,” Galesic says.
What works best
To reduce hostility in public spaces and increase the chances of constructive conversations, it is not only sufficient but also most effective to simply express your own opinion. For example: “I agree with that.” Or: “I have a different opinion on that.”
A little humor can help, too. One additional point is that counterspeech is more effective when citizens organize, so that there is not one lonely voice but several speaking up at the same time.
Why this works best
“Stating a simple opinion works because it helps others to better perceive what the majority thinks without causing much backlash. In online spaces, extreme voices typically prevail and it is easy to think that one is in the minority with more moderate views. But if more citizens simply state what they think, what they agree with and disagree with, without arguments and fights, this helps others to see what the social norm is,” says Galesic.
Social norms have a strong influence on how people speak, dress, behave, etc. When people believe they are in the minority, they are more likely to keep their views to themselves and even adapt to others, which further drives the spiral of silence.
These insights are based primarily on a study published in PNAS Nexus in November 2025. The study analyzed more than 130,000 discussions from Twitter/X in Germany between 2015 and 2018.
Together with CSH Associate Faculty members Jana Lasser and David Garcia, as well as Alina Herderich, Joshua Garland, and Segun Taofeek Aroyehun, Galesic studied hate and counterspeech during the so-called migrant crisis in Germany – a period that helped shape the political landscape in which many of today’s developments emerged.
