Last Saturday, the owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave her restaurant. Since that and other incidents, many have been debating the role civility should have in politics. The Washington Post editorial board warned that justifying certain types of incivility is a slippery slope, while Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times argued that the nation is facing not “a breakdown in civility [but] a breakdown of democracy.”
When angry, humans are inclined to act. Do nonviolent name-calling, harassment and other forms of incivility suggest that America is failing to live up to its democratic ideals?
Political science suggests incivility’s effects on democracy are mixed. Exposure to incivility can reduce trust in government, belief in institutional legitimacy and media credibility while further polarizing citizens politically. But it can also be a way to assert political rights when traditional methods are ineffective and can rally supporters to your cause. Incivility can open up political debate, even as it makes us uncomfortable.
How does incivility hurt political conversation?
Insults and outrage damage our relationships with government and each other. In her book “In-Your-Face Politics,” Diana Mutz shows incivility can lower trust in government, reduce faith in institutions and lessen respect for opposing views. Without citizens’ trust, politicians have a harder time fulfilling their policy goals.
What’s more, it spreads. My own work finds that when people are exposed to political incivility, they’re likely to respond in kind. To test this, in July 2016 I split a nationally representative sample of 3,100 Americans recruited online through market research company GfK into four different groups. Some watched a 45-second news clip that was civil, while others saw a clip in which opponents interrupted and insulted one another. Afterward, each participant was invited to leave a comment or question about what they watched. Eight percent of participants who watched the civil clip used some form of incivility in their comment — insulting the speakers’ views and calling them names. Ten percent of those who watched the uncivil clip did the same. When we talk about politics with incivility, we perpetuate a cycle that has negative effects on our attitudes toward government.
How can incivility help us communicate?
Political scientist Susan Herbst argues that incivility is used by political elites to rile audiences up, remind them how bad the other side is,…
