Political Incivility of Leaders: Public Perception, Political Trust and Civic Participation

Abstract

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Political incivility has become an important phenomenon in recent ages. Political leaders’ incivility is related to their tone and language, or in other words, to their style of interaction rather than their opinions. This study intends to examine the perception of incivility amongst the public and explore what personal and demographic characteristics are associated with the perception of incivility. Furthermore, it observes the effects of political incivility on public behavior, especially political trust and political participation. For this purpose, cross sectional research design employed, and a survey (n=200) was carried out. Results suggest that demographically, men are likely to engage in uncivil conduct or observe political speech as being more uncivil than women. Moreover, certain personality traits alignwith the sense of incivility and others are not affected by it at all. Likewise, the result shows inversely proportional relationship between political incivility and political trust indicating individuals repeatedly exposed to uncivil behavior may become de-sensitized to its effects