Online incivility in comment boards: Partisanship matters - But what I think matters more

Abstract

Two experimental studies were conducted to investigate how an individual's partisanship influences his or her response to incivility expressed by others in online comment boards. The research focuses on how the effects of incivility differ when uncivil comments are made by in-group members who share the same partisanship as contrasted to situations when comments are made by out-group members whose partisanship is in opposition. The studies also examined how the effects are influenced by an individual's own issue stance as well as by social influence exerted via “recommendations.” Results indicated support for in-group favoritism demonstrated by greater leniency in judging both uncivil comments and uncivil commenters associated with an individual's own party. However, in-group favoritism disappeared when an individual's own opinion about an issue contradicted the issue position of his or her own party in which case both the in-group's uncivil comment and the in-group commenter were negatively evaluated. No evidence was found for social influence of “recommendations.” These findings contribute to understanding how the effects of incivility vary especially when there is a contradiction between an individual's own issue stance and that of his or her own party.