Title

Playing nice: modeling civility in online political discussions

Abstract

This article explores a way to promote civility in online political discussions through modeling behaviors. An online experiment (N = 130) was conducted to investigate the influence of civil and uncivil political discourse on participants' mode of discussion and participatory intentions. Results show that those who were exposed to civil discussion demonstrated a civil mode of discourse in their own comments and reported a higher level of willingness to participate in discussions, compared to those who were exposed to uncivil discussion. This study illuminates the possibility that civil participants may have more control over the online environment than they think.

Department(s)

Communication

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2014.989971

Keywords

Civility, Political Discourse, Social Cognitive Theory

Publication Date

2015

Journal Title

Communication Research Reports

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