The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics

Can political incivility bolster support for American candidates? Conventional wisdom holds that it does and Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victories demonstrate the power of uncivil rhetoric—particularly, when it is paired with racially intolerant rhetoric. However, recent studies have demonstrated...

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Autor principal:	Bryan T. Gervais
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	SAGE Publishing 2021
Materias:	Political science J
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/89674a7267b942a69e384d207e68c942
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:89674a7267b942a69e384d207e68c942
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:89674a7267b942a69e384d207e68c9422021-11-15T04:03:38ZThe electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics2053-168010.1177/20531680211050778https://doaj.org/article/89674a7267b942a69e384d207e68c9422021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211050778https://doaj.org/toc/2053-1680Can political incivility bolster support for American candidates? Conventional wisdom holds that it does and Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victories demonstrate the power of uncivil rhetoric—particularly, when it is paired with racially intolerant rhetoric. However, recent studies have demonstrated that leveraging political incivility can backfire on elites. As such, it is unclear whether uncivil rhetoric has electoral value, or if its utility is bolstered when it is joined by intolerant rhetoric. Leveraging a survey experiment, I find that both political incivility and racial intolerance induce feelings of disgust. The presence of intolerance in a message weakens the effects of incivility on disgust for out-group elites, suggesting that multiple rhetorical norm violations result in diminishing (negative) returns. Moreover, the effects of intolerance on disgust are moderated by a subject’s level of racial resentment. These aversive reactions to incivility and intolerance reduce electoral support for the elite sponsoring the message. In-group candidates pay a larger electoral penalty, although the penalty for intolerance is moderated by subject racial resentment. I conclude that, contra claims that political incivility works, uncivil messaging serves as a strategic liability for candidates.Bryan T. GervaisSAGE PublishingarticlePolitical scienceJENResearch & Politics, Vol 8 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Political science J
spellingShingle	Political science J Bryan T. Gervais The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics
description	Can political incivility bolster support for American candidates? Conventional wisdom holds that it does and Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victories demonstrate the power of uncivil rhetoric—particularly, when it is paired with racially intolerant rhetoric. However, recent studies have demonstrated that leveraging political incivility can backfire on elites. As such, it is unclear whether uncivil rhetoric has electoral value, or if its utility is bolstered when it is joined by intolerant rhetoric. Leveraging a survey experiment, I find that both political incivility and racial intolerance induce feelings of disgust. The presence of intolerance in a message weakens the effects of incivility on disgust for out-group elites, suggesting that multiple rhetorical norm violations result in diminishing (negative) returns. Moreover, the effects of intolerance on disgust are moderated by a subject’s level of racial resentment. These aversive reactions to incivility and intolerance reduce electoral support for the elite sponsoring the message. In-group candidates pay a larger electoral penalty, although the penalty for intolerance is moderated by subject racial resentment. I conclude that, contra claims that political incivility works, uncivil messaging serves as a strategic liability for candidates.
format	article
author	Bryan T. Gervais
author_facet	Bryan T. Gervais
author_sort	Bryan T. Gervais
title	The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics
title_short	The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics
title_full	The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics
title_fullStr	The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics
title_full_unstemmed	The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics
title_sort	electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in american politics
publisher	SAGE Publishing
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/89674a7267b942a69e384d207e68c942
work_keys_str_mv	AT bryantgervais theelectoralimplicationsofuncivilandintolerantrhetoricinamericanpolitics AT bryantgervais electoralimplicationsofuncivilandintolerantrhetoricinamericanpolitics
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The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics

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