How Moral Value Commitments Shape Responses to Political Civility and Incivility

Citizen exposure to political incivility is increasing. Studies have found heterogeneous responses incivility, but we know little about what drives this variation. This study investigates whether emotional both civility and are driven by moral value commitments. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, argue that should pose more of a threat people who embrace an individualizing system regulation than binding system. To test this, conduct 3 × between-subjects survey-embedded vignette experiment with representative sample 1,789 U.S. respondents. The vignettes describe interactions between two candidates in debate. findings show respondents clearly distinguish civil, neutral, uncivil debate these conditions yield distinct responses. Moreover, “individualizers” stronger response “binders.” Responses civility, however, appear be unaffected