Women who make hateful remarks on social media are likely to be judged more severely than men who make the same comments, a new study has found. The findings, published in the journal Sex Roles, also suggested that the reactions to hate speech made by women were less accepted than counter speech from men. "These findings support the idea that women are more concerned about fairness and avoiding harm to others than men," said co-author Claudia Wilhelm from the University of Erfurt in Germany.

"In the specific case of comments directed against women and sexual minorities, hate comments by female authors are perceived as an act of double deviance and are therefore sanctioned more strictly than such hate comments by men," Wilhelm added. For the study, the research team conducted an online survey that involved 457 participants (51 percent female) through political interest groups and a German news magazine site on Facebook.