Incivility on Facebook and political polarization: The mediating role of seeking further comments and negative emotion

Abstract

This study examined whether and how (in)civility and the presence of supporting evidence in disagreeing comments influence individuals' attitude polarization. The study used a 2 (civility vs. incivility) x 2 (evidence vs. no evidence) factorial design involving reading dissimilar viewpoints in Facebook comments. The results showed that exposure to uncivil opposing comments, compared to exposure to civil disagreeing comments, led to lower levels of willingness to read more comments and greater levels of negative emotions and attitude polarization. However, the presence or absence of supporting evidence in comments did not have any significant effect on the outcome variables. The findings suggest that it is the civility or incivility of information that influences whether exposure to dissimilar perspectives either mitigates or reinforces individuals' attitude polarization. This study also suggested willingness to read more comments and negative emotions as two mediating factors between exposure to uncivil/civil disagreeing comments and attitude polarization.