Citizen Incivility Toward U.S. Presidential Candidates in the 2016 Election: She’s a Devious, Self-Indulgent, Manipulative Liar and He’s a Racist, Dishonest, Dangerous Deplorable

Abstract

Much evidence suggests elite-level political incivility in U.S. politics, yet little research examines citizen-level incivility. We do so by examining responses to questions asking why citizens might vote against the 2016 presidential candidates. Uncivil responses stifle meaningful deliberation, for example by attacking the candidate’s character; civil responses simply express disagreement or dissatisfaction with the candidate. Democratic incivility toward Trump (often focused on his attitudes about women and minorities) was matched by Republican incivility toward Hillary Clinton (often focused on her gender). The fact that incivility was higher among those with greater media exposure suggests that citizens may model elite-level incivility. While civility outweighed incivility, our findings suggest a degree of incivility that may be normatively troubling for the health of U.S. democracy.