The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics

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dc.contributor.authorGervais, Bryan T.
dc.creator.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9725-4255en_US
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-10T17:46:19Z
dc.date.available2023-05-10T17:46:19Z
dc.date.issued2021-11-14
dc.description.abstractCan 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.en_US
dc.description.departmentPolitical Science and Geographyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipInternal Research Awards Grant by the Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Texas at San Antonioen_US
dc.identifier.citationGervais, B. T. (2021). The electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politics. Research & Politics, 8(2), 20531680211050778. doi:10.1177/20531680211050778en_US
dc.identifier.issn2053-1680
dc.identifier.otherhttps://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211050778
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/1828
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherSAGE Publicationsen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/*
dc.subjectpolitical incivilityen_US
dc.subjectexplicit racial appealsen_US
dc.subjectvote choiceen_US
dc.subjectaffecten_US
dc.subjectcandidate appealsen_US
dc.titleThe electoral implications of uncivil and intolerant rhetoric in American politicsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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