Incivility Does Not Exist: An Experimental Assessment on the Drivers of Incivility Perceptions and Their Effects on Candidate Evaluations

Building upon the definition of incivility as norm-violating conduct, this Stage-2 Registered Report argues that incivility does not exist per se as an objective reality but only as a subjective and context-dependent perception. We leverage data from a conjoint survey experiment (United States; 𝑁 = 1,884), manipulating the characteristics of an “uncivil” attack—who went uncivil, how, and when—to test how a range of contextual factors and individual dispositions shape incivility perceptions. Our results reveal that an uncivil attack is perceived as more uncivil (i) when it is uttered by candidates described as more aggressive and (ii) when its surrounding electoral context is characterized by widespread incivility. Additionally, lower perceptions of incivility were associated with authoritarian tendencies, populist beliefs, feelings of social marginalization, and a “darker” personality profile. Finally, we demonstrate that whether candidates are punished for “going uncivil” partially depends on how this incivility is perceived.