Purpose

The study investigates the effect of an uncivil comment made by a party representative on social media and tests whether it can lead to a change in observers' attitude toward the party.

Design/methodology/approach

Data are collected from 196 respondents using a scenario-based survey. Proposed model is tested using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

It is found that individual's moral identity and issue involvement influence perceived civility of the online post, which in turn affects attitude toward the party as well as the individual. It is observed that for high partisans, effect of perceived civility on attitude toward the party is stronger compared to low partisans. Party's lack of responsiveness to address the uncivil comment from its representative increases party's incivility accountability and lowers the partisan attitude toward the party.

Originality/value

The study presents a novel understanding of how political party representatives can influence the image of the party by engaging in an uncivil discourse on social media. Results support that strong partisan would react more unfavorably indicating that loyalty toward the party cannot be taken for granted.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2020-0084

中文翻译：

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在线政治上的不文明行为对党派态度的影响：问题参与，道德认同和不文明行为问责制的作用

目的

该研究调查了党代表在社交媒体上发表的不文明评论的影响，并测试了它是否会导致观察者对党的态度发生变化。

设计/方法/方法

使用基于情景的调查从196名受访者中收集数据。建议的模型使用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）进行测试。

发现

结果发现，个人的道德认同和议题参与影响了在线帖子的感知文明程度，进而影响了对党和个人的态度。据观察，对于高党派人士而言，与低党派人士相比，感知的文明对党的态度的影响更大。政党缺乏回应其代表的不文明评论的能力，这增加了政党的不文明责任感，并降低了党派对政党的态度。

创意/价值

该研究提出了一种新颖的认识，即政党代表如何通过在社交媒体上进行不文明的论述来影响政党形象。结果表明，强大的党派会做出更不利的反应，这表明对党的忠诚不能被认为是理所当然的。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史记录可在以下网址获得：https：//publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2020-0084