Incivility abounds in news comments today, but few studies have investigated how individuals process incongruent messages or have examined whether news comment sections are viewed as the public sphere. This study examined the effect of uncivil comments on attitude polarization
using an online survey experiment based on bias assimilation theory to investigate the views of survey participants regarding the controversial issue of same-sex marriage legalization. The results found that incongruent messages trigger the primary mechanism of bias assimilation. However, the tone of the messages caused no significant difference on the bias assimilation effect, with the effect appearing for both uncivil and civil messages.