Incivility in online news and Twitter: effects on attitudes toward scientific topics when reading in a second language

Due to the participatory nature of Web 2.0, polite communication on social media and news sites can stand side by side with uncivil comments. Research on online incivility has been conducted with users reading in their mother tongues (L1), while the potential effects of incivility in a second language (L2) have been largely under-explored. This paper analyzes the effects of uncivil comments written in an L2 on attitudes around emerging technologies. Accordingly, study 1 replicates and extends a previous experiment on the effects of incivility to online news on risk perceptions of nanotechnology (Anderson et al., 2014), by adding an ‘L2 condition’ (uncivil comments written in an L2). Then, study 2 analyzes the effect of incivility on four fictitious Twitter debates around different scientific issues, varying language (L1 or L2), and civility. Results from both studies show that participants are more likely to endorse claims written in a civil rather than uncivil manner, but only in the L1. The results contribute to understanding how online communication is affected by reading in an L2. •Research on online incivility primarily focuses on comments written in the L1.•We analyze the effects of incivility in an L2 on attitudes around technology.•Study 1 replicates a study on the effects of uncivil comments on news sites adding a bilingual condition.•Study 2 tests the same hypotheses on four fictitious Twitter debates.•Participants usually endorse claims written in a civil manner, but only in the L1.