Cancel Culture, a by-product of social media’s impact on today’s world, has been one of the most discussed subjects of the last decade, with earlier studies outlining many effects it may have on the general public. Recently, the Pressure for a Perfect Conduct construct has been proposed as a conceptual representation of the pressure people could feel to behave perfectly when facing the possibility of cancellation. However, there’s a lack of research exploring how it may affect the general perceptions of Cancel Culture situations, as well as how these perceptions are impacted by context-specific cues. To tackle this issue, we conducted a 2x2 vignette-based experimental study (N = 221), manipulating the target (Reader vs Third-Party) and speed (Immediate vs Delayed) of the cancellation, and measuring their impact on scenario perceptions (realism, justice, and Cancel Culture accuracy). Results indicate that realism perceptions are significantly impacted by the target of the cancellation and PPC, but not by the speed of the cancellation. Cancel Culture accuracy perceptions, on the other hand, are significantly impacted by the speed of the cancellation and PPC, but not by the target of the cancellation. Finally, justice perceptions are significantly impacted by the cancellation’s target, but not by PPC or the cancellation’s speed. Our results support the claim that there is an unrealistic optimism pertaining to cancelling situations, and that higher levels of PPC are associated with higher reported values of realism, allowing these individuals to more correctly assess the world around them.

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Cancel culture,social media,PPC,justice,experimental

Best Oral Presentation - XXI PhD Meeting in Psychology