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How Moral Value Commitments Shape Responses to Political Civility and Incivility

Walter, Annemarie; Lipsitz, Keena

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Authors

Keena Lipsitz



Abstract

Citizen exposure to political incivility is increasing. Studies have found heterogeneous responses to incivility, but we know little about what drives this variation. This study investigates whether emotional responses to both civility and incivility are driven by moral value commitments. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, we argue that incivility should pose more of a threat to people who embrace an individualizing system of moral regulation than a binding system. To test this, we conduct a 3 × 3 between-subjects survey-embedded vignette experiment with a representative sample of 1,789 U.S. respondents. The vignettes describe interactions between two candidates in a debate. The findings show that respondents clearly distinguish between civil, neutral, and uncivil debate and that these conditions yield distinct emotional responses. Moreover, we show “individualizers” have a stronger emotional response to incivility than “binders.” Responses to civility, however, appear to be unaffected by moral value commitments.

Citation

Walter, A., & Lipsitz, K. (2021). How Moral Value Commitments Shape Responses to Political Civility and Incivility. American Politics Research, 49(4), 359-367. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673x211004137

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 3, 2021
Online Publication Date Mar 21, 2021
Publication Date Jul 1, 2021
Deposit Date Apr 19, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal American Politics Research
Print ISSN 1532-673X
Electronic ISSN 1552-3373
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 49
Issue 4
Pages 359-367
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673x211004137
Keywords Sociology and Political Science
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5421388
Publisher URL https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673X211004137
Additional Information Accepted for publication in the journal American Politics Research

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