What Drives Cancel Culture?

• In Event: Public Opinion on "Cancel Culture" and Free Speech

Abstract

Few principles are as central to American democracy as support for free speech. Even when faced with offensive or hateful speech, the traditional argument has been for “more speech, not enforced silence,” to quote Justice Brandeis. But in recent years, some have argued cancel culture demonstrates that support for free speech is waning: Americans now want to “cancel” or ban speech that offends them. If true, this represents a tectonic shift in Americans’ attitudes. We outline a theory of when and why people support canceling speech and test it using a conjoint survey experiment with a representative sample of Americans. Our findings show cancellation is relatively uncommon. However, when canceling behavior does occur, it is driven by the content of what speakers say—not the speaker’s identity. This underlying pattern is the same for those on the left and the right. Thus, cancellation seemingly reflects an attempt to redress speech considered harmful rather than punishment borne out of partisan animosity. Even so, our evidence suggests most people misperceive others as canceling frequently, and doing so with nefarious motives. We conclude that the media rhetoric around cancel culture, and its focus on partisan conflict, has buoyed a raft of misperceptions that ironically threaten to exacerbate partisan animosity. These findings have important implications for scholars’ understanding of Americans’ support for free speech.

Authors

• Nicholas Carlo Dias, University of Pennsylvania

• James N. Druckman, Northwestern University

• Matthew S. Levendusky, University of Pennsylvania