Impoliteness reciprocity online

The Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity stipulates that (im)politeness is balanced across participants in an interaction. However, although it was claimed to be applicable to both politeness and impoliteness, there is little evidence to support the latter. This paper aims to rectify that situation. Specifically, it explores whether and how impoliteness reciprocity might work in online interactions. It is often claimed that online interactions are predisposed towards impoliteness. This paper examines whether that is true, and more particularly how impoliteness is distributed online compared with face-to-face. Is impoliteness matched by impoliteness? What is the role of third parties? How long do tit-for-tat impoliteness chains run for? Are there distinct characteristics of impoliteness online? Its method involves very carefully matched datasets, extensive coding of that data, and network analyses. The results reveal little difference in the general occurrence of impoliteness in online versus face-to-face data, and the Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity is found to be just as applicable to impoliteness as politeness in both datasets. Furthermore, the results show significant differences in the way that impoliteness is distributed, including the role of third parties, the way impoliteness escalation occurs, and the role of sarcasm and resonance. • The Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity works for impoliteness. • Impoliteness escalation is no exception to the Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity. • Online data is not generally more dense in impoliteness, but it distributes differently. • Online data is characterised by collective third-party counterbalancing interventions. • Sarcasm and dialogic resonance characterise online data, but work in opposite ways.