Perceptions of Incivility on Twitter

Uncivil and toxic content on social media is frequently cited as a substantial burden to political engagement online. Academic research and journalistic accounts suggest that this burden is disproportionately borne by women. Yet, most research is based on the assumption that what constitutes uncivil content on social media can be defined in absolute terms by uniform criteria. This article adds to this literature by introducing a contextual approach to understanding incivility, which examine how the characteristics of the actors involved in online conversations and those who judge them affect understandings of incivility toward female and male politicians. To do so, we run a (visual) conjoint experiment among both politicians and representative samples of citizens in Canada, Denmark, and Chile. Our study advances understandings of how social media context affects perceptions of incivility online as well as the mechanisms involved.