New Poll Finds That Opinions About Cancel Culture Stem From Media
By Grace Piotrowski and Sabrina Jacobs
In recent years, cancel culture has become a prevalent part of our society. For some people, cancel culture is about holding people accountable after years of allowing racism, sexism, and homophobia to go unchecked. For others, it’s an attack on free speech and an overreaction of the “woke left.”
While it still remains to be seen what impact cancel culture will have on society, and if anyone has actually been successfully “canceled” (looking at you, Louis C.K.’s Grammy), the concept of cancel culture has filtered throughout the mainstream, regardless of partisanship. According to a new poll by Data for Progress, 74 percent of voters are aware of cancel culture, including 73 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of independents, and 72 percent of Republicans.
While political affiliation doesn’t necessarily influence if someone has heard about cancel culture, age, gender, education, and media consumption are indicative of a person’s awareness. Seventy-eight percent of men have heard of cancel culture, in comparison to 70 percent of women. 79 percent of people under 45 are more likely to have heard about cancel culture as well as 84 percent of those with a college degree.
However, it’s clear that consumption of right-wing media is most indicative of someone’s awareness of cancel culture. While the number of people who do not consume right-wing news and have heard of cancel culture is still relatively high at 70 percent, the percentage rises for those who watch Fox News (76 percent) and OANN or Newsmax (91 percent).
How individuals define “cancel culture” also changes depending on one's gender, age, and crucially, right-wing media viewership. Data for Progress outlined four general definitions of cancel culture:
Cancel culture is holding individuals accountable for their actions
Cancel culture is a way to call out racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
Cancel culture is an attack on Americans’ freedom of speech
Cancel culture is shaming individuals by publicly spotlighting a mistake
The first two positive definitions are more supported by women under the age of 45 and those who don’t consume right-wing media. Meanwhile, the belief that cancel culture is an attack on free speech is more supported by men over 45 and those who consume right-wing media. Overall, 83 percent of people who watch OANN or Newsmax agree that cancel culture is an attack on free speech. Meanwhile, only 30 percent of people who don’t watch right-wing media agree with that definition.
Negative definitions of cancel culture tend to be most popular. Forty-seven percent of all likely voters agree that cancel culture is shaming individuals by publicly spotlighting a mistake; however, only 34 percent believe that cancel culture is holding individuals accountable for their actions. There’s no definition that a majority of people believe is a good definition of cancel culture, demonstrating the divide in how our culture thinks about the issue.
While 74 percent of all likely voters do not personally know someone who has been canceled, those who do tend to be men under the age of 45 and those who consume right-wing media. In fact, 25 percent of people who watch OANN or Newsmax say they know someone who has been canceled.
In contrast, people are much more likely to know of celebrities who have been canceled (50 percent of all likely voters). Voters who don’t consume right-wing media are only 45 percent likely to know of canceled celebrities, whereas 54 percent of Fox News views and 61 percent of OANN or Newsmax viewers have heard of canceled celebrities or public figures. Younger and college-educated individuals are also more likely to have heard of public figures being canceled.
While gender, age, and education all play a role in one’s awareness of cancel culture, it’s clear that right-wing media consumption is an important factor when it comes to forming opinions on the subject.
That being said, 71 percent of voters aren’t changing their behavior online in fear of being canceled, including 83 percent of OANN or Newsmax viewers and 65 percent of Fox News viewers.
Polling clearly shows that opinions about cancel culture are another example of the divide in messaging and content in media. Right-wing media has created an objectively negative picture about cancel culture focused on attacks on free speech and public shaming, whereas voters who don’t consume right-wing media are able to see that cancel culture has the ability to hold individuals accountable. Yet, despite the strong belief from right-wing news viewers that cancel culture is an attack on freedom of speech or a way to publicly shame individuals, few have changed anything about how they communicate.
Grace Piotrowski is Operations Director at Data for Progress.
Sabrina Jacobs (@bri_jacobs) is a digital fellow at Data for Progress.