Fully 85% of adult SNS users say that in their experience people are mostly kind in social networking spaces. An additional 5% say their experience is that people are mostly unkind and 5% say their answer depends on the situation. The remainder of SNS users said they didn’t know how to answer the question or refused to answer it.

These answers paint an even more positive portrait of the emotional and social climate of social networking sites than the generally positive assessment offered by teens.

White adult SNS users were more likely than blacks to report their overall experience was one of kindness in social networking spaces (88% vs. 77%), and black SNS users were more likely than whites to report that unkindness was the prevalent tone (12% vs. 3%). In addition, suburban SNS users (87%) were somewhat more likely than urban residents (80%) to say that the overall tone of social networking spaces was that people were kind. And people who use SNS only sparingly are somewhat less likely than others to report that kindness prevails and more likely to say they don’t know which trait is most in evidence.