Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Concern about the effects of political incivility on American democracy is widespread; however, there are few data that document whether incivility has pernicious effects on citizens. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of the influence of attack politics, in general, and incivility, in particular, on the public. We argue that three dimensions are key to understanding both perceptions and effects of different types of campaign messages: tone (negative versus positive); focus (issue versus trait-based); and civility (civil versus uncivil). While each of these dimensions has been examined independently by previous scholars, they have never been analyzed in interaction with one another. We present an experimental manipulation to a large national sample of respondents and find that incivility in campaigns does not appear to be as worrisome as its detractors fear. While uncivil messages in general -- and uncivil trait-based messages in particular – are generally seen by the public as being less fair, less informative, and less important than both their civil negative and positive counterparts, they are no more likely to lead to detrimental effects among the public. In fact, incivility appears to have some positive consequences for citizen engagement in politics.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Levels of fear vary across Philadelphia neighborhoods. Using hierarchical linear models (HLM) and 2003 survey data from 45 Philadelphia neighborhoods, the current study examined impacts of individual and neighborhood level variables on fear. Of key interest are two issues: (1) whether, after controlling for various individual socio-demographic characteristics, within-neighborhood variations in perceived incivilities, and neighborhood level perceived incivilities continue to influence fear of crime, and, if they do (2) whether the remaining ecological impact of incivilities can be explained away by spatially lagged fear. Although a great deal is known about the ecological impacts of perceived incivilities on fear, whether or not the impact remains after fear is spatially lagged appears to be an open question.

Publication Type: Presentation
Abstract: Although research shows that women are frequent targets of workplace incivility (i.e., rudeness, disrespect), little research has examined what factors may influence the frequency with which women experience workplace incivility or how incivility may differentially affect different women. The present study examines how parental status may act as a predictor of workplace incivility for women and a moderator in the relationship between incivility and negative work outcomes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Congress by its very nature is a deliberative institution created to mediate societal conflicts and address the policy concerns posed by such conflicts (Madison, Federalist # 10; Dahl, 1967; Cooper, 1970). The challenge for Congress is to embrace these responsibilities without becoming so overwhelmed with internal institutional conflict that its policy processes break down or so regularized and insulated in its policy processes that it fails to see and confront pressing social concerns. Thus a central congressional dilemma: Because conflict is inherent to Congress and threatening to its operation, it is tempted to avoid institutional meltdown by embracing highly constrained and regularized policy procedures. Yet an embrace of excessive constraints can isolate the Congress, inhibit conflict mediation, and allow policy problems to fester. How then does Congress generate the landmark laws that address its central mediational and policy-making tasks (Mayhew, 1991; Binder 2003)?

The thesis of this paper is that the capacity of Congress to enact landmark legislation depends significantly on the character and regulation of conflict within the institution. Substantial and sustained landmark productivity requires a Congress that fosters real policy contestation (Dahl, 1967, 1971) characterized by serious conflict and even occasional incivilities, so that difficult policy problems can be brought to its attention (Jones and Baugartner, 2005; Schattsneider, 1960). Such contestation limits the isolation of Congress and connects it with social reality. But Congress then must maintain internal conflict within moderated parameters that avoid institutional meltdown and enable deliberative policy-making to proceed (Cooper, 1970, Part IV; Maass, 1983; Bessette, 1994).

In this formulation, too much institutional conflict can inhibit landmark productivity -- but so can too little conflict (Simmel, 1955/1908). Too much conflict, we argue, will occur in polarized Congresses when high party polarization interacts with high inter-party incivility. Too little conflict is witnessed in depolarized Congresses (those below the historic mean level of party polarization) when low party polarization interacts with excessive intra-party civility. Both settings inhibit landmark productivity. In contrast, moderate levels of interactive conflict between party polarization and member incivility foster landmark productivity in both depolarized and polarized Congresses. Institutional conflict thus has countervailing effects, increasing gridlock in polarized Congresses and decreasing it in depolarized ones.

To explore the explanatory value of our ‘conflict theory’ of landmark productivity we examine the statistical relationship between institutional conflict and landmark legislation by Congress from 1891 to 1994. This period begins with the first Congress to occur after the initial passage of the Reed Rules in the House of Representatives and ends with the 103rd Congress, which is the last Congress for which we have complete data. In our analysis:



a. We use DW-Nominate scores developed by Poole and Rosenthal (1997) to
measure party polarization.
b. We determine the rise and fall of incivility within Congress according to the
percentage of articles published by the New Your Times and the Washington
Post on the Congress between 1891 and 1994 that discuss incidents of
congressional incivility.
c. For our indicators of landmark productivity we have gathered an original
compilation of landmark acts by surveying the coverage of all congressional acts in fifteen major publications
d. We gauge the countervailing effect of legislative conflict on landmark
legislation by examining the interaction of polarization and inter-party
incivility in polarized settings and the interaction of polarization and intra-
party incivility in depolarized contexts. This data also generates a measure of
moderate legislative conflict which we use to test the relationship between
conflict and policy productivity across all Congresses.
e. Our statistical analysis also looks at divided government, electoral mandates of presidents, divided chamber, Senate partisan capacity, New Deal era effects, and a dummy variable for depolarized Congresses.


We first test our thesis by looking at the effects of level of legislative conflict within polarized settings. This analysis indicates that increased legislative conflict aids landmark productivity in depolarized Congresses and hinders it in polarized ones. Additionally, it suggests that moderate conflict fosters policy productivity across all Congresses. We test the power of this finding by developing a measure of moderate conflict (as opposed to extreme low or high polar conflict) and utilizing it in the analysis of landmark productivity across all Congresses. This analysis demonstrates that that moderate levels of interactive conflict appear to foster landmark legislation while the contrasting extremes of conflict – high in polarized settings and low in depolarized setting – hinder landmark legislation.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This study examined the effects of incivility and sexual harassment on the psychological well-being of undergraduate women (N=942) at a large Midwestern university. Incivility is considered to be less upsetting than sexual harassment; however, both sexual harassment and incivility were predictive of increased depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms in this sample.