Brand Incivility Causes 75% to Consider Boycott, 56% to Stop Patronizing

In a new poll released today by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate and KRC Research, nearly one-third (34%) of the American public report that they are "tuning out" of social networking sites, with 39% of them attributing their tune-out to rude discourse and behavior. The online survey was conducted in April and asked more than 1,000 Americans how civility affects people's views of and participation in social media, politics, media and buying behaviors.

- 45% have defriended or blocked someone online because of uncivil
comments or behavior
- 38% stopped visiting an online site because of its incivility
- 25% dropped out of a fan club or online community because it had
become uncivil

The survey asked Americans to rate the civility of 18 aspects of daily life. The public rated blogs more uncivil than social networking sites and Twitter (51% vs. 43% vs. 35%, respectively). Despite one-half of the public citing the presence of incivility in blogs, this figure pales next to the much larger 72% who view the political world and government as uncivil - the highest percentage recorded in the poll.

The survey revealed there is a high cost to rudeness and inconsiderate behavior. A full three-quarters (75%) of Americans believe that companies that are uncivil should be boycotted. Based on personal experiences of incivility, one-half or more of Americans have refrained from buying a company's products (56%), reevaluated their opinions of a company (55%) or advised friends and family against purchasing their products (49%).