Doctoral Dissertation Research: Political Incivility, Social Identity and American Democracy

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

Popular and scholarly arguments state that uncivil discourse is bad for democracy because it hampers political trust and potentially sharpens polarization. Thus, uncivil political discourse is seen as contrary to a good democratic society. These arguments could be overstated for two reasons: (1) there may be no common understanding of what constitutes uncivil discourse; (2) incivility can prompt increased political participation among some groups. Drawing on two survey experiments, this project examines influences on individuals’ perceptions of incivility and whether exposure to incivility encourages individuals to participate. Investigating these phenomena will reveal to what extent the negative outcomes of incivility are overstated, and to what extent there are positive outcomes of incivility. This study of political incivility advances research in political communication, political psychology, and public opinion. Existing scholarship tends to treat political incivility as some objective phenomena that is responded to in similar manners across different contexts. Using survey experiments, this project tests instead whether people form their own assessments of what is uncivil, depending on the context and according to their own political and social biases and whether different social groups respond to incivility in positive ways. Overall, this project is the first empirical study that demonstrates the relevance of social identity to the study of political incivility and whether incivility has the potential to produce some desirable outcomes in democratic society. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.