While incivility in public online discussions is considered a pressing concern, there are few empirical findings on what participants in an online discussion perceive and evaluate as (mildly and severely) uncivil and on how they react to different types of incivility. Based on a novel approach to incivility as a disapproved violation of communication norms, the present study examines perceptions of and reactions to norm violations. In a fully functional mock-up discussion forum, participants were confronted with comments that contained violations of five different communication norms. The results suggest that violations of all five communication norms are disapproved as uncivil, and that distinct types of incivility vary in perceived severity and elicit different responses. In particular, participants evaluated insults and vulgarity directed at another person as most severe and were more likely to respond to these with sanctioning replies or flags compared to other norm violations.
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Verfasser hier: Jan Kluck
Dieser Datensatz wurde nicht während einer Tätigkeit an der Universität Mannheim veröffentlicht, dies ist eine Externe Publikation.
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