Incivility in online news and Twitter: effects on attitudes toward scientific topics when reading in a second language

Due to the participatory nature of Web 2.0, polite communication on social media and news sites can stand side by with uncivil comments. Research online incivility has been conducted users reading in their mother tongues (L1), while potential effects a second language (L2) have largely under-explored. This paper analyzes comments written an L2 attitudes around emerging technologies. Accordingly, study 1 replicates extends previous experiment risk perceptions nanotechnology (Anderson et al., 2014), adding ‘L2 condition’ (uncivil L2). Then, 2 effect four fictitious Twitter debates different scientific issues, varying (L1 or L2), civility. Results from both studies show that participants are more likely endorse claims civil rather than manner, but only L1. The results contribute understanding how is affected L2.