Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i1.3360
Exports for your reference manager
Roots of Incivility: How Personality, Media Use, and Online Experiences Shape Uncivil Participation
[journal article]
Abstract Online media offer unprecedented access to digital public spheres, largely enhancing users’ opportunities for participation and providing new means for strengthening democratic discourse. At the same time, the last decades have demonstrated that online discourses are often characterised by so-called... view more
Online media offer unprecedented access to digital public spheres, largely enhancing users’ opportunities for participation and providing new means for strengthening democratic discourse. At the same time, the last decades have demonstrated that online discourses are often characterised by so-called ‘dark participation’ the spreading of lies and incivility. Using ‘problematic behaviour theory’ as framework and focusing on incivility as a specific form of dark participation, this article investigates the role of users’ personal characteristics, media use, and online experiences in relation to offensive and hateful online behaviour. Using a random-quota survey of the German population, we explored how dark personality traits, political attitudes and emotions, the frequency and spaces of online-media use, and users’ experiences with both civil and uncivil online discourses predicted participants own uncivil behaviour, such as posting, sharing, or liking uncivil content. We found that 46% of the participants who had witnessed incivility in the last three months also engaged in uncivil participation. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis showed that incivility was associated with manipulative personality traits as measured by the dark triad, right-wing populist voting intentions, and frequent social-media use. Experiences with both civil comments and hate speech predicted higher levels of uncivil participation. The strongest predictor was participants’ personal experiences with online victimisation. Overall, the results confirmed that dark participation in the sense of uncivil engagement results from the interplay of personality traits, an online environment that allows for deviant engagement, and, most importantly, participants’ experiences in said environment.... view less
Keywords
online media; social media; participation; communication behavior; hate; personality; political attitude; emotionality; victimization; Federal Republic of Germany
Classification
Interactive, electronic Media
Free Keywords
dark participation; dark triad; hate speech; incivility; offensive speech; political anger; problematic behaviour theory
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 195-208
Journal
Media and Communication, 9 (2021) 1
Issue topic
Dark Participation in Online Communication: The World of the Wicked Web
ISSN
2183-2439
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed