Trolling for Likes

Rising partisan prejudice in the U.S. has rendered relations between the two political sides increasingly volatile. Meanwhile, an uncivil and hyper-partisan political climate has likely fomented social tolerance for, and even approval of, hostile political expressions. Drawing upon prior theorizing about the prediction of behavior, the current work explores two potential motivators of political aggression. In two studies, we demonstrate strong relationships between the desire to politically aggress and both personal acceptance and perceived social approval of political hostility. We first examine the relationships between key motivating factors of political aggression (N = 170). A second experimental study (N = 184) demonstrates that decreasing the perceived approval of political hostility attenuates the desire to aggress against a political outgroup. Taken together, these findings suggest that perceived approval of political hostility plays a key role in motivating politically aggressive behavior. Implications, including what factors might mitigate political aggression, are discussed.