Juan Morales (Collegio Carlo Alberto) (webinar)

“Cancelled: Conformity or Silence?”

Abstract: We study how perceived social pressure affects the public expression of opinion. How sensitive are individuals to current concerns of social backlash and “cancel culture”? Do these dynamics vary depending on individual characteristics like political affiliation or social media use? To investigate these questions, we first outline a simple model that formalizes these ideas and helps to frame our study. We highlight how social pressure can affect public opinion either through a change in publicly stated views towards a norm (conformity) or by inducing self-censorship (silence). We then outline a proposed online survey experiment that allows us to disentangle these two effects and to better understand these social dynamics in the context of two current debates: Gender and LGBTQ issues, and Race and Police.

Joint with Margaret Samahita.