Seeing is Believing: Effects of Uncivil Online Debate on Political Polarization and Expectations of Deliberation

Abstract

The present study examines how exposure to uncivil online comments influences individuals' attitude polarization along political party lines, perceived political polarization of the public, and expectations about public deliberation. Findings show that exposure to uncivil online discussion does not affect attitude polarization, but it does significantly affect the perceived polarization of the public. In addition, exposure to uncivil online discussion leads to lower expectations about public deliberation and such effect of uncivil discussion on expectations of public deliberation was mediated by perceived public polarization but not by attitude polarization.

News Values, Cognitive Biases, and Partisan Incivility in Comment Sections

“…These results help to explain why incivility is prevalent in comment sections, even though journalists and news users decry uncivil content. Given that incivility is connected to polarization (Anderson et al, 2014;Hwang et al, 2014), this finding could be read as disconcerting. Combining theories about news values, social identity, and cognitive biases with a unique dataset from The New York Times revealed that there are incentives for incivility to exist in comments.…”

“…Rather than promoting respectful discussions, comment sections can foster incivility toward other commenters and points‐of‐view (Coe, Kenski, & Rains, ). Incivility in news comment sections can lead to troubling consequences, such as prompting polarized attitudes about science (Anderson, Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, & Ladwig, ) and toward political parties (Hwang, Kim, & Huh, ). It is also related to avoiding comment sections and online discussion (Diakopoulos & Naaman, ; Springer, Engelmann, & Pfaffinger, ) and perceiving articles as lower‐quality (Prochazka, Weber, & Schweiger, in press).…”

“I Don't Like You Any More”: Facebook Unfriending by Israelis During the Israel-Gaza Conflict of 2014

“…However, when a major political event, such as a war, occurs and everybody is talking politics, political tolerance disappears and weak ties are broken, thus reducing the chances of political deliberation. Furthermore, as debates become ever more heated and uncivil, people's expectations of public deliberation would appear to decline (Hwang, Kim, & Huh, ).…”

How Web Comments Affect Perceptions of Political Interviews and Journalistic Control

“…Polarized content in comment sections may also amplify further polarized comments (Muddiman & Stroud, 2017). What is more, online political dialogue has a tendency to increase political polarization and extreme viewpoints (Hwang, Kim, & Huh, 2014). However, research has yet to examine the extent to which comments "one-up" prior comments.…”