Addressing incivility in society requires a close look at the role of social media. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that more than 40% of U.S. adults have faced harassment online and that its most severe forms, such as physical threats, are on the rise (Vogels, E. A., The State of Online Harassment, Pew Research Center, 2021opens in new window).
“We are inundated with social media, so it’s difficult to separate uncivil discourse from the algorithms that amplify it,” said psychologist Barbara Tint, PhD, of Portland State University and the University of Oregon Law School.
Those algorithms push people—local politicians, for example—to act less civilly to get attention and engagement, said psychologist Ravi Iyer, PhD, managing director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making at the University of Southern California. They also make it easier for highly motivated people, sometimes called conflict entrepreneursopens in new window, to divide others to serve their own interests, which are often financial.
[Related: What the psychology of conflict zones can teach us about incivility]
“Most people are not actively seeking out conflict,” Iyer said. “But the way these platforms are engineered to reward activity and engagement, people can game the system to get more distribution.”
Iyer says moderating content is not the solution. Policing all discourse is impractical, and incivility shouldn’t be banned entirely—there’s a time and place for calling people out. Instead, he suggests reworking online systems to incentivize more constructive behaviors.
“There are basic psychological processes that exist offline that don’t have real analogs online,” Iyer said. Feelings of guilt and empathy typically prevent face-to-face incivility, but most online systems lack the reputational consequences and human connection that deter such behavior.
The Neely Center’s Design Code for Social Mediaopens in new window offers a set of practical tools for improving civility online. Recommendations include changing engagement incentives, adding the option to give negative feedback (similar to downvotes on Reddit), and setting rate limits that stop small groups of people from dominating online conversations. A group of leading academics, authors, and technologists have offered their support for the recommendations.
“We should keep in mind that online systems can also bridge divisions,” Iyer said. “With the right incentives in place, people can make connections they might otherwise not.”
