How Socioeconomic Status Affects Cancel Culture Propensity

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Date

2024-03

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Abstract

Cancel Culture has become prevalent on social media platforms in recent years, which has caused devastating losses to brands. However, the questions of WHO and WHY about Cancel Culture remain unclear. This research focused on how an individual difference – socioeconomic status (SES) can affect Cancel Culture Propensity. The research involves two pre-studies and five subsequent studies, revealing that SES has a positive total effect on Cancel Culture Propensity. The research identifies two parallel mediators - perceived responsibility and perceived anger - through the first SES positively affects and the second SES negatively affects Cancel Culture Propensity. Further, based on the self-signaling theory, two boundary conditions are identified where high-SES consumers may perceive canceling-related behaviors to threaten their positive self-images, thus reducing their Cancel Culture Propensity: 1) when the word “cancel” is salient; 2) when the message tone is emotional.

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Business: 2nd Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum)

Keywords

Brand Management, Cancel Culture, Socioeconomic Status (SES), Social Responsibility, Emotionality

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