Humor Reduces Online Incivility
Dublin Core
Title
Humor Reduces Online Incivility
Subject
Online Comments, Incivility, Toxicity, Humor, Anger, Source Liking, Machine-learning
Description
Online incivility is a persistent issue facing many news and social media platforms. To better understand it, we examined whether humorous content reduced online incivility and whether the
(in)civility of another user might mitigate or amplify this effect in two experiments (Study 1, N ¼ 122; Study 2, N ¼ 208). Participants in both experiments read an online opinion article about an instance of negative stereotyping and provided a comment on a simulated online news forum. The first study manipulated article humor (humorous vs. not humorous). The second study manipulated humor and the (in)civility of a previous user’s comment (civil vs. uncivil). In both studies, humor-reduced incivility. Anger mediated this effect. Source liking mediated the positive effect of humor on reducing anger. The (in)civility of a previous comment did not affect these results. Overall, the findings point to the value of humor and anger reduction in managing
online incivility
(in)civility of another user might mitigate or amplify this effect in two experiments (Study 1, N ¼ 122; Study 2, N ¼ 208). Participants in both experiments read an online opinion article about an instance of negative stereotyping and provided a comment on a simulated online news forum. The first study manipulated article humor (humorous vs. not humorous). The second study manipulated humor and the (in)civility of a previous user’s comment (civil vs. uncivil). In both studies, humor-reduced incivility. Anger mediated this effect. Source liking mediated the positive effect of humor on reducing anger. The (in)civility of a previous comment did not affect these results. Overall, the findings point to the value of humor and anger reduction in managing
online incivility
Creator
Yomna Elsayed & Andrea B. Hollingshead
Source
https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/27/3/zmac005/6552940
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Date
26 January 2022.
Contributor
Sri Wahyuni
Format
PDF
Language
Englsih
Type
Text
Coverage
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 00 (2022)
Files
Collection
Citation
Yomna Elsayed & Andrea B. Hollingshead, “Humor Reduces Online Incivility,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed May 22, 2025, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/8745.