All Roads Lead to Hate? Examining Five Prediction Paths for Online Incivility and Intolerance Perpetration

This two-wave panel survey puts five pathways (i.e., antisocial and prosocial personality, intergroup identity conflict, recent victimization experiences, social media habits) against each other to test their unique over-time relationship with digital hate perpetration. Using autoregressive structural equation modeling, psychopathy, need for social approval, and recent victimization emerged as universally relevant for both incivility and intolerance. Notably, recent victimization had the strongest link, highlighting that breaking victimization-perpetration cycles may be key in combating digital hate. Furthermore, Machiavellianism and social media habits selectively predicted online intolerance. All these generally and selectively relevant paths point toward distinct opportunities to reduce aggressive communication.