Moral disengagement and content moderation attitudes
Examining how apathy to online harms may disguise racially conservative beliefs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12656643 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alyvia Walters (0000-0002-8862-4832, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, corresponding author), Tawfiq Ammari (0000-0002-1920-1625, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey), Shagun Jhaver (0000-0002-6728-7101, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Media & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14614448251385923 |
| OpenAlex | W4416454391 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
Social media users’ preferences for various content moderation interventions have been widely studied, but the implicit beliefs that connect to these preferences are less understood. Using a nationally representative survey data set, we investigate how end-users’ attitudes toward moderating harmful speech online relate to their offline racial attitudes. We find that racially conservative beliefs are significantly positively related to participants indicating a distaste for concepts related to content moderation and cancel culture, suggesting that racial conservatism may be a crucial factor to consider in assessing these attitudes. We discuss our findings through the lens of moral disengagement theory, positing that supporting “freedom of expression” by way of disagreeing with content moderation and cancel culture may be a contemporary mechanism of morally disengaging with the harmful effects of racially insensitive speech
Apathy · Conservatism · Content (measure theory · Disengagement theory · Media content · Moderation · Psychological intervention · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics
Dangerous Frames
Racism on the Internet
Online networks of racial hate
Implicit and Explicit Racial Attitudes Changed During Black Lives Matter
Policing the Crisis
Cyber Stalking, Cyber Harassment, and Adult Mental Health
Of DEI and denials
How social media use, political identity, and racial resentment affect perceptions of reverse racism in the United States
The Race Card
The negative health effects of anti-Asian stigma in the U.S. during Covid-19
More than a black and white issue
On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices
Intersections in the digital society
The content of their coverage
CancelCulture
Censored, suspended, shadowbanned
Racism and Xenophobia in a Pandemic
No Seat at the Party”
The marketplace of ideas, cancel culture, and misunderstanding the First Amendment
Progress and push-back
The Branding of Right-Wing Activism
Do users want platform moderation or individual control? Examining the role of third-person effects and free speech support in shaping moderation preferences
Online knowledge production in polarized political memes
Without Regard to Race
Cancel Culture
Global Racist Contagion Following Donald Trump's Election
Freedom of racist speech
Framing Theory
Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities
Repairing the harm
Who Can Say What? Testing the Impact of Interpersonal Mechanisms and Gender on Fairness Evaluations of Content Moderation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |