Killed with Kindness: Does "Glazing" Elicit Comparable Emotional Distress to Direct Hate Despite Lower Perceived Severity?

We investigate online “glazing”—hostility masked by exaggerated politeness online. We examine prosocial communication effects through a between-subjects experiment that randomly exposes youth to comment threads (glazing, direct hate, or neutral). We anticipate results will show that while glazing appears less harmful, it elicits comparable emotional distress to direct hate.