Fast and furious: Temporal patterns of incivility in online comments

Abstract

Incivility in online comment sections is pervasive and has significant societal implications, including impacting mental well-being and increasing polarisation. This study investigates the relationship between speed of commenting and incivility, using a dataset of 38 million comments from The Guardian Online. We hypothesise that quicker responses are more likely to be uncivil and that incivility propagates through a contagion effect. Our analysis reveals that blocked comments, used as a proxy for incivility, are posted significantly faster than visible comments, for both parent and child comments. In addition, we find that the presence of blocked comments increases the likelihood of subsequent blocked comments, with decreasing time intervals between them. These findings suggest that incivility is associated with impulsive, fast thinking, while civil discourse will sometimes require slower, more deliberate practices. Our results have implications for designing online platforms to foster healthier and more productive discussions by encouraging deliberative time before readers post.