The #MeToo movement and social media have increased public awareness of sexual violence, particularly when committed by high-profile celebrities. Presently, we are within a unique sociocultural space, often referred to as “cancel culture,” in which perpetrators of sexual violence may face increased accountability. However, “cancelation” is not equally applied to all perpetrators. The purpose of this study was to explore the roles of perpetrator likeability and tactic (i.e., force and coercion) on the degree to which perpetrators are “canceled” (i.e., held accountable through personal, professional, and legal repercussions) for sexual assault. Among a sample of 238 participants, results of this experimental vignette study revealed that perpetrators viewed as unlikeable received more blame than those who were likeable or described in a neutral manner, with the survivors in the likeable perpetrator and neutral scenarios receiving greater blame. Moreover, perpetrators who used coercion were less likely to be blamed and be held accountable than those who used force, with the survivors in the coercive scenarios receiving greater blame. No interaction effects emerged between likeability and tactic, suggesting that the main effects operate independently of one another. Though the #MeToo movement and cancel culture have created cultural change in the United States, the findings from this study suggest that perpetrators continue to be held less accountable, so long as they are not unlikeable and do not use force.

#MeToo 运动和社交媒体提高了公众对性暴力的认识，尤其是知名名人实施的性暴力。目前，我们处于一个独特的社会文化空间，通常被称为“取消文化”，性暴力的肇事者可能面临更多的责任。然而，“取消”并不同样适用于所有肇事者。本研究的目的是探讨施暴者的可爱度和策略（即武力和胁迫）对施暴者被“取消”（即通过个人、职业和法律后果追究责任）性侵犯程度的影响。在 238 名参与者的样本中，这项实验性的小插曲研究的结果显示，被视为不讨人喜欢的施暴者比那些讨人喜欢或以中性方式描述的施暴者受到更多的指责，而在讨人喜欢的施暴者和中性场景中的幸存者受到更多的指责。此外，使用胁迫的肇事者比使用武力的肇事者更不可能受到指责和追究责任，而胁迫场景中的幸存者受到更大的指责。好感度和策略之间没有出现交互效应，这表明主要效应彼此独立运作。尽管#MeToo 运动和取消文化在美国引发了文化变革，但这项研究的结果表明，只要肇事者不是令人讨厌且不使用武力，他们所承担的责任仍然较少。