Towards a typology of online users in response to incivility: A latent profile analysis across six countries

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Incivility is pervasive in the online communication landscape and has been linked to harmful consequences for individuals and the quality of public discourse. Understanding how people engage with online incivility is crucial for identifying mechanisms that may reinforce or mitigate such interactions. Although previous research investigated how incivility is experienced in different social roles such as victims, bystanders and perpetrators, most studies have examined these roles separately rather than analyzing how experiences, behaviors and attitudes toward incivility co-occur within individuals. To systematically identify and distinguish patterns of behaviors, experiences and attitudes associated with incivility, a Latent Profile Analysis was carried out, using a large-scale data set (N = 4,555) surveying young adults aged 18 to 26 (M = 21.69, SD = 2.24) from six countries (US, UK, Spain, Poland, France, Finland). Our results indicate that five profiles or types of users can be distinguished. Individuals are categorized as: perpetrator-victims; uninvolved; observers; defenders; tolerators. Additional analyses suggest that moral emotions vary systematically between these profiles. While perpetrator-victims report more pride, hate and guilt emotions when encountering incivility than any other profile, defenders indicate higher degrees of shame. By identifying distinct patterns of involvement in online incivility and their associated emotional responses, the findings provide insights into the psychological dynamics underlying uncivil online interactions and highlight potential targets for preventive interventions and future research.