Viral Moral Outrage

With the creation of the internet, people are able to connect with one another from across the globe in more accessible ways than ever before through social media and the web. Moreover, with the internet, people are exposed to all kinds of behaviors, statements, and actions, including those that could be perceived as offensive material or moral violations. With the creation of the internet, social activism has become a prominent development in social media engagement. Social activism includes holding individuals, organizations, and leaders accountable for their actions. Following this accountability, a digital phenomenon known as callout/cancel culture has become a way to openly express and apply pro-diversity, politically correct ethos, and the “callout” or “cancelling” of oppressive, wrong, inappropriate opinions. With the accessibility to connect with various people and different opinions on the internet, including exposure to potential offensive stimulus’, subsequent responses to immoral/wrong behavior on the internet has been addressed through the phenomenon of callout/cancel culture. However, the repercussions of such callout/cancel behavior may lead to overlooking a real person with every-day flaws and mistakes. Thus, this phenomenon of callout/cancel culture has brought upon consequences from moral violations exhibited by offenders in their professional and/or personal life. In this current study, we raise the question whether an offender should be educated for their wrongdoings or simply called out/cancelled for it. Moreover, we also bring inquiry upon if a person’s desire to participate in callout/cancel culture can play a role in a person’s moral outrage levels when viewing offensive behavior online. Other factors that are brought into investigation is if a person’s perception of a victim’s feelings for a perpetrator\u27s offensive behavior can influence a viewer’s moral outrage, as well as how different group affiliation (religious, social activist) of a viewer can play a role in sympathy levels for the offender receiving viral moral outrage. In this research, we investigated the following variables and their relationships with one another in on the topic of viral moral outrage; (1) the relationship between desire to participate in callout/cancel culture had a relationship with participants moral outrage levels (2) the relationship between the perceived outrage of the victim had a relationship with participant’s moral outrage levels (3) the relationship between whether participants who identified as social activists were more likely to participate and endorse cancel culture compared to neutral or non-social activists, (4) relationship between whether social activists believed the offender needed to be educated and their willingness to provide the education compared to the other two groups (neutral and non-social activists), (5) the relationship of affiliation with activist status ((high social activist status, low social activist status, neutral) and sympathy levels for the offender receiving viral outrage (6) the relationship of affiliation with religious group (religious affiliation and non-religious affiliation) and sympathy levels for the offender receiving viral outrage. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of USF campus culture and social media events. This survey observed the phenomenon of “callout/cancel culture” in which students publicly judge others for their level of knowledge or particular stance on an issue. This research explored multiple factors and if they had a significant influence in ways students engage with viral moral outrage