“Tipping point” in the SoS? Minority-supportive opinion climate proportion and perceived hostility in uncivil online discussion

This study investigates a postulated 30% supportive-comment threshold as a “tipping point” for minority expression on social networking sites (SNSs) in the context of online incivility. By doing so, perceived hostility is introduced as an interactional factor explaining minority’s expression (un)likelihood. Results from a 2 (comment civility: civil vs uncivil) × 3 (supportive-comment proportion: 15% vs 30% vs 45%) ( N = 807) revealed that...