Why User Comments Affect the Perceived Quality of Journalistic Content The Role of Judgment Processes

User comments on news websites are frequently uncivil and are not supported by reasoned argumentation. These characteristics can have negative effects on the perceived quality of the commented-on journalistic content, yet to date, it remains unclear how such effects occur. We propose three mechanisms that assume that the effect of user comments depends on how deliberately and elaborately the quality of the commented-on news item is judged. We conducted an experiment (N = 633) in which we varied the level of civility and reasoning in the comments accompanying a news article and the brand of the news website on which it was presented. The results showed that a lack of reasoning in the comments decreased the perceived quality of the news item irrespective of brand awareness, but only with high elaboration during judgment. Incivility in the comments decreased the perceived quality of the journalistic content, but only with low elaboration, and only with an unknown news brand. We discuss different psychological mechanisms that can explain this pattern of effects.