Different platforms, different uses: testing the effect of platforms and individual differences on perception of incivility and self-reported uncivil behavior

Abstract

Two large surveys with adult samples of Americans (N = 1,105; N = 1,035) investigated differences in perceived incivility between seven social media platforms. Perceptions of incivility were targeted, given both their inherent societal relevance and the personalized nature of each user’s platform experience. Utilizing a novel approach, observations per platform were nested within each user, facilitating disentangling user-level from platform-level factors. Study 1 demonstrated that even accounting for differences between users, perceptions vary by platform. Further, while individual users do admit to generating uncivil content themselves, self-perceptions were in contrast largely stable across platforms. Study 2 built upon Study 1 by investigating additional platform-level factors that could impact perceptions of incivility: Differences in perceived affordances between platforms were related to differences in perceptions of incivility’s prevalence. Specifically, platforms characterized by either perceived anonymity or perceived network association were in turn perceived to be more uncivil.