Politics is becoming an arena of insults. Toxic language corrodes democracy, new study confirms

Western democracies find themselves in a danger that is less obvious than attacks on the constitution or press freedom, but all the more insidious: the very culture of democratic dialogue is crumbling. A new study by Petter Törnberg and Juliana Chueri of the University of Amsterdam confirms that political communication in Western countries is increasingly toxic - and that this phenomenon is not accidental, but systematically encouraged by certain political forces.

The research analysed nearly 18 million tweets from MPs in 17 Western countries over five years. The conclusion? The level of political toxicity - that is, the language of insult, contempt and polarisation - has almost doubled on average. This trend is particularly true of posts on culture war topics such as migration, LGBTQ+ rights or nationalism, while debates on the economy or social policy remain relatively civil.

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Language as a tool for visibility

Particularly troubling is the finding that toxic rhetoric is not evenly distributed across political camps. It is used most by parties of the radical right - and consistently across countries. The study shows that "liberal and green parties show the lowest levels of incivility", while "radical right populist parties are significantly more toxic than all others". Parties in the opposition also show more toxicity, as they seem to use polarising language as a tool to gain visibility.

The authors of the study point out that the toxic style of communication is not a random excess, but part of a strategic calculation. In the environment of algorithmically driven social networks, aggressive and polarizing content is heavily rewarded - it gets more attention, more shares, more votes. And attention is becoming the most valuable commodity in contemporary politics.

Hope in the age of covid

A surprising finding of the study is that the decline in toxicity occurred during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic - across countries. This "brief hiatus in insults" shows that even a highly polarized environment can calm down if there is a shared crisis that transcends partisan differences. This is a hopeful message for democracy: toxic language is not inevitable, but it is related to the incentives and boundaries we set for political expression.

European societies should draw clear lessons from this study. Toxic discourse is not just 'ugly', it erodes the basic preconditions of democratic governance: trust, respect, the ability to have a rational debate and to seek compromise. If we leave the public space to those who deliberately stir up hatred, we risk the normalisation of aggression and the decline of democratic culture.

Liberal democracy must also defend its values in the way we talk about them. Openness, human rights, solidarity or European cooperation are not just concepts of content, but also linguistic practices that require a sophisticated debate, not shouting and insults. If democracy is to survive the onslaught of radical forces, it will do so, among other things, by resisting the temptation to respond to hatred with the same language.

As the study's authors themselves say, "The increased toxicity of political discourse is not just a manifestation of domestic conflicts, but a reflection of broader structural changes in the way politics is done." If we don't want democratic competition to become a digital arena of hate, we need to change the very incentives that privilege toxic rhetoric - from algorithms to the media environment.