{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T00:18:10Z","timestamp":1774311490648,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,8]],"date-time":"2025-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1759881600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>While the spread of toxicity on social media has received ample attention, studies offer conflicting expectations and mixed evidence about its contagious nature. This study advances understanding of how toxicity becomes contagious by distinguishing between exposure to toxicity by ingroup versus outgroup members and separating toxicity into impolite style and intolerant substance. We focus on Israel during 2023, a period marked by intense political polarization. Using Twitter panel data from original and replication datasets, we analyze \u223c1M tweets from 12,481 users and \u223c6M tweets from the 713,231 accounts they follow. We find that exposure to toxic behavior by ingroup members is the primary driver of contagious toxicity, compared to smaller, less consistent associations with outgroup toxicity. Moreover, seemingly less harmful forms of toxicity (impoliteness) by the ingroup are not only associated with increased users\u2019 impoliteness but also with increased intolerance toward political groups\u2014which may carry troubling implications for democracies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/jcmc\/zmaf018","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,10]],"date-time":"2025-09-10T11:53:35Z","timestamp":1757505215000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["How social media users adopt the toxic behaviors of ingroup and outgroup accounts"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Alon","family":"Zoizner","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa , Haifa,","place":["Israel"]}]},{"given":"Avraham","family":"Levy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa , 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