What are the predictors of political incivility perceptions?

Incivility in public discourse has become a central concern. This research develops an approach based on citizens’ perceptions of incivility to assess predictors of such perceptions. Starting from a definition of the concept in a multidimensional sense, we identified different types of incivility th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of communication (London) 2024-08, Vol.39 (4), p.375-394
Main Authors: Bentivegna, Sara, Rega, Rossella
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizens
Demographic variables
Demography
Perceptions
Politics
Racism
Sociodemographics
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Incivility in public discourse has become a central concern. This research develops an approach based on citizens’ perceptions of incivility to assess predictors of such perceptions. Starting from a definition of the concept in a multidimensional sense, we identified different types of incivility that can be easily translated into operational terms (using vulgar/insulting language, referring to another politician with racist/sexist/religious epithets, lying/inventing facts to attack political opponents, and resorting to violence against political opponents). Through a survey of a representative sample of the Italian population, we found that citizens’ perception of incivility is not uniform but varies depending on the context and individual characteristics (socio-demographic variables, news consumption and relationship with politics). Overall, the importance of disentangling the concept into different types has emerged, because continuing to speak of ‘incivility’ in a broad sense does not help to clarify the phenomenon nor to identify the consequences for citizens’ relationship with politics.
ISSN:0267-3231
1460-3705
DOI:10.1177/02673231241271008