Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
This study explores how individuals react to celebrities who take a political stance that contradicts and threatens their social identity. An online experiment examines these questions in the context of the Israeli war against Hamas in the wake of the October 7 terror attack. Israeli Jewish participants who were led to believe that a beloved celebrity fully embraced the Palestinian’s narrative and condemned Israel experienced more negative and less positive emotions and had a greater intention to cancel the celebrity. However, writing a comment or a social media post (particularly if the comment bashed the celebrity) partially buffered these emotional effects. Effects were moderated by the intensity of the media user’s parasocial relationship with the celebrity and the strength of their identification with Israel. The findings offer a unique perspective on why, under certain circumstances, engaging in toxic cancel culture behaviors can be experienced as psychologically rewarding in the short term.
Recommended Citation
Tukachinsky Forster, R., & Spitz, D. H. (2025). I love you, but I have got to cancel you: Psychological consequences of participation in cancel culture. Psychology of Popular Media. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000598
Copyright
American Psychological Association
Included in
Other Communication Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Social Media Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons
Comments
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Psychology of Popular Media in 2025 following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000598.
This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.