‘Unfollow Them!’: The Role of Morality- and Emotion-Related Factors in the Cancelling Process

Cancel culture is a notable, but not well theorised social phenomenon, widely understood as a way of punishing those in the public eye who are perceived to do or say the wrong thing. This study aimed to elucidate the cancelling process and the role of morality- and emotion-related traits in this process. Adult social media users (n = 298) undertook an online survey containing cancel culture–related vignettes and scales. As hypothesised, moral outrage was found to positively mediate the relationship between transgression perception and cancel culture engagement. Moral sensitivity also had a positive correlation with transgression perception. Moral sensitivity was not related to cancel culture engagement, however, whilst emotion regulation difficulty and moral identity did not moderate the relationship between moral outrage and cancel culture engagement. These findings suggest that those sensitive to moral problems, who feel strong negative emotions, are more likely to engage in cancel culture. Furthermore, findings indicate that Crockett’s (2017) online moral outrage theory has some explanatory power, and that moral outrage and sensitivity may be important to consider when regulating cancel culture. Features of social media and artificial intelligence can be potential obstacles in this process, however, and this warrants consideration in instances where preventing cancellation is desirable. Future research is needed to corroborate these findings and evaluate other prospective cancel culture theories.