The Influence of Online Political Expression on Disagreement and Incivility: The Moderating Role of Social Identity

ABSTRACT

This study theorized that active political expression on social networking sites (SNS) facilitates political disagreement since it diversifies one’s communication network, which likely leads to political incivility. Additionally, individuals’ social identity might condition this indirect relationship. Relying on a two-wave panel survey in Hong Kong, this study found that political expression on SNS is significantly associated with political disagreement. However, political disagreement does not lead to political incivility, indicating that it does not mediate the relationship between political expression and incivility. Further analysis showed that the mediating relationship between political expression, disagreement, and incivility is only significant for dual identifiers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Herein, we differentiate SNS from another major type of social media, instant messaging applications (IM, such as WhatsApp, Line, and Snapchat), and we mainly focus on the former. The two types of social media likely play different roles in political communication due to their divergent social affordances (Kligler-Vilenchik et al., 2020; Meng & Wang, 2023).

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the Strategic Research Grant from the City University of Hong Kong.

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Masood

Muhammad Masood (Ph.D. City University of Hong Kong) is currently a Research Fellow at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His research interests lie in the relationship between digital media and social change, mainly focusing on civic and political implications of digital media technologies, including public opinion, political communication (e.g., misinformation), civic engagement & intergroup relations (e.g., minorities).

Xiang Meng

Xiang Meng (Ph.D. City University of Hong Kong) is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Interactive Media of Hong Kong Baptist University. His research focuses on the social and political implications of digital media, public opinion and international communication.

Jeffry Oktavianus

Jeffry Oktavianus (Ph.D. City University of Hong Kong) is a research assistant professor at the Department of English and Communication, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research examines the potential of new media technologies in addressing issues related to health and politics, including health disparities, dis/misinformation, and social movements.

Milos Moskovljevic

Milos Moskovljevic (M.A. University of Belgrade) is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program, Media & Communication, as an HKPFS awardee at the City University of Hong Kong. His current research areas are political communication, political neuroscience, digital propaganda, memetics, and alternative media.

Nan Zhang

Nan Zhang (Ph.D. City University of Hong Kong) is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism & Communication, Xiamen University, China. Her research interests are primarily the effects of new media technologies on environmental engagement.

Marko Skoric

Marko Skoric (Ph.D. University of Michigan) is an associate professor at the Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong. He holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Michigan, and a BSc in Psychology from the University College London, the United Kingdom. Marko’s teaching and research interests are focused on new media and social change, with particular emphasis on civic and political implications of new communication technologies.