Understanding Cancel Culture and the Potential for Forgiveness: Corporate Apologies
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Public Relations
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This research paper analyzes how customer attitudes towards cancel culture vary depending on the contents of a released apology statement. The two factors evaluated within the apologies were: specificity (whether the apology is specific about why the incident happened) and blame assignment (whether the company takes full responsibility or calls out specific individuals within the company). The methodology of this experiment was a 2x2 between-subjects survey that was administered to 932 respondents. The results of the study found no evidence that specificity or blame attribution alone affect people’s attitudes towards a corporate apology. However, a statistically significant interaction effect between specificity and blame was found. Apologies with specific details when the company is taking blame as a whole and apologies with no specific details when certain individuals are blamed were found to lead to positive effects on people’s purchase intent, personal emotional belief, and personal emotional response.