Re: Does Civility Matter in the Blogosphere? Examining the
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Testing the role of negative emotions in mediating interaction effects
H5 to H7 were established to test how negative emotions mediate the interaction effects of incivility and ideological incongruence on the three dependent variables of respondents’ attitudes (i.e., open-mindedness, attitude certainty, and willingness to talk with the other side). To test mediation, we used Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedure. Baron and Kenny (1986) propose a series of necessary steps in establishing mediation: 1) the IV predicts the DV; 2) the IV predicts the mediator; and 3) when the IV and the mediator are both used to predict the DV, the mediator should be a significant predictor, and the IV decreases in its influence on the DV (partial mediation), or is removed (full mediation). Following this steps, we conducted additional analyses by entering negative emotion variable as a predictor in the prior regression analyses for testing Model 1. The results were presented in Model 2 in Table 1.
The results showed that negative emotions did fully mediate interaction effect of incivility and ideological incongruence on open-mindedness (H5) by showing that negative emotions had significant and negative effects on open-mindedness (β = -.24, p < .001) and interaction effect was reduced to no significant level when negative emotion variable was enter into the equation (β =-.12, p < .001 for Model 1; β =-.08, ns for Model 2). The results also revealed that negative emotions partially mediated interaction effects of incivility and ideological incongruence both on attitude certainty (H6) and willingness to talk with the other side (H7) such that negative emotions were significant related to attitude certainty (β =.21, p < .001) and interaction effect on dependent variable in Model 2 was smaller (β =.16, p < .05 for attitude certainty; β =-.14, , p < .05 for willingness to talk with the other side)than that in Model 1 (β =.13, p < .05 for attitude certainty; β =-.13, , p < .05 for willingness to talk with the other side). Thus, both H6 and H7 were supported.
H5 to H7 were established to test how negative emotions mediate the interaction effects of incivility and ideological incongruence on the three dependent variables of respondents’ attitudes (i.e., open-mindedness, attitude certainty, and willingness to talk with the other side). To test mediation, we used Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedure. Baron and Kenny (1986) propose a series of necessary steps in establishing mediation: 1) the IV predicts the DV; 2) the IV predicts the mediator; and 3) when the IV and the mediator are both used to predict the DV, the mediator should be a significant predictor, and the IV decreases in its influence on the DV (partial mediation), or is removed (full mediation). Following this steps, we conducted additional analyses by entering negative emotion variable as a predictor in the prior regression analyses for testing Model 1. The results were presented in Model 2 in Table 1.
The results showed that negative emotions did fully mediate interaction effect of incivility and ideological incongruence on open-mindedness (H5) by showing that negative emotions had significant and negative effects on open-mindedness (β = -.24, p < .001) and interaction effect was reduced to no significant level when negative emotion variable was enter into the equation (β =-.12, p < .001 for Model 1; β =-.08, ns for Model 2). The results also revealed that negative emotions partially mediated interaction effects of incivility and ideological incongruence both on attitude certainty (H6) and willingness to talk with the other side (H7) such that negative emotions were significant related to attitude certainty (β =.21, p < .001) and interaction effect on dependent variable in Model 2 was smaller (β =.16, p < .05 for attitude certainty; β =-.14, , p < .05 for willingness to talk with the other side)than that in Model 1 (β =.13, p < .05 for attitude certainty; β =-.13, , p < .05 for willingness to talk with the other side). Thus, both H6 and H7 were supported.