Observer v Actor: Exploring Individual Dispositions and Social Identity Influences on Incivility Perceptions and Performance

Sensitized by the expectancy violations theory (EVT) for the observer perspective and the social identity theory (SIT) for the actor position, the study surveyed 263 young, educated Nigerians to investigate whether personality traits shape perceptions of incivility, compared to whether social identities, especially partisanship and ethnicity, provided an explanation of reported participation in uncivil political discourse on social media. Using correlations, hierarchical regression models, and moderation analyses, support was found for both assumptions, with agreeableness significantly predicting perceived incivility, and partisanship explaining self-reported incivility; however, the study also found that personality traits, especially agreeableness and conscientiousness, served a regulating function on social identity’s influence on uncivil discursive behavior. The implications of these findings for incivility research, including the lack of support for ethnicity’s influence on behavior, are discussed.