Two Wrongs Make 1 Right: The Role of Retaliatory Incivility in Conferring Social Rewards

Incivility is largely denounced; yet, our focus on its ills have inhibited our ability to determine when incivility could garner rewards. We propose that rude actors are conferred more social rewards when they respond to another’s incivility (i.e., retaliatory incivility) relative to when incivility is unprovoked, because retaliatory incivility is seen as more virtuous. To test these hypotheses, we used observational data from Reddit (2,252,607 comments) to compare how many social rewards users were granted when they responded uncivilly to civil or uncivil posts from other users. We then experimentally confirm our hypotheses in a sample of Reddit users, as well as two samples of participants from different contexts of group incivility; sports fans, and employees. Together, our findings challenge conventional wisdom: retaliatory incivility, far from being disparaged, can be a surprising path to social reward. Our findings have far-reaching practical implications, too, as incivility continues to rise internationally.