Playing Nice: Modeling Civility in Online Political Discussions

A discourse analysis of audience deliberation in online forums on race-relevant news

“…Table 5 shows that combinations consisting of conclusions, evidence and warrants were not as prevalent as isolated conclusions or conclusions with evidence. Han and Brazeal (2015) demonstrate that exposure to civil messages prompts the imitation of that civility, however our findings suggest that this does not seem to apply to other deliberative behaviours such as the inclusion of warrants. Building warrants into some posts did not dispose peers to include warrants of their own.…”

“…Given the reach of online media, discourse practices that ossify into regular patterns can disseminate among the broader public, including readers who are exposed to, but not actively involved in, the interchange. In fact, Han and Brazeal's (2015) experiments suggest that exposure to civil disagreement, prompts readers to emulate associated behaviours, such as asking for clarification and avoiding uncivil responses. Similarly, Lyons (2017) reminds researchers that any single online forum should be broached as a part of a much broader network within which some discourses gain traction, while others do not.…”

“…These networks can also disseminate practices that are considered disruptive to deliberation, including incivility or ideological enclaves where like-minded discussants exchange preference-reinforcing opinions (Han and Brazeal 2015). Over the past few decades, journalists and readers from various backgrounds have expressed concern with these dangers.…”

Is Civility Contagious? Examining the Impact of Modeling in Online Political Discussions

“…Uncivil discussion can also induce feelings of anger and aversion (Chen & Lu, 2017;Coe et al, 2014;Gervais, 2015) and lead to the perception that uncivil discussants are more aggressive and less credible than civil discussants (Ng & Detenber, 2005). Research from Han and Brazeal (2015) found that incivility dampened the willingness of others to participate in the online conversation at all, much like negative advertising in political campaigns can discourage voting (Ansolabehere, Iyengar, & Simon, 1999). Other research, however, has found that the heightened emotions caused by incivility can actually encourage others to jump into the conversation with uncivil comments of their own.…”

“…This openness to diverse opinions and the face-saving nature of civil discourse may encourage discussants to feel more open and willing to share their ideas with strangers without fear of retribution. In fact, scholars have found that civil comments generally increase willingness to participate (Han & Brazeal, 2015;Molina & Jennings, 2017), which can open up space for new ideas. In addition, as mentioned earlier, civility can lead to greater elaboration of the issues at hand (Molina & Jennings, 2017).…”