Join us for our Social Behavioral Interest Group (SBIG) Colloquium on October 30, 2025!
Speaker: Ivy Onyeador (Northwestern University)
Title: But What About My Free Speech? Free Speech Appeals Reduce Accountability for Workplace Bias
Abstract: This research examines how appeals to freedom of speech affect people’s evaluations of biased speech and their willingness to hold perpetrators of biased speech accountable. Results from four experimental studies (total N = 3897) revealed that (a) defensive appeals to free speech (relative to alternate appeals or saying nothing) reduced evaluations of severity and willingness to hold perpetrators accountable in instances of both racism and sexism. (b) This effect generally held across participant race, gender, and ideology and even occurred when evaluating anti-racist speech, suggesting the effect is not exclusive to those with hierarchy-enhancing motivations. (c) Information about a policy that mandated inclusion did not eliminate our effect, whereas a policy mandating free speech reduced accountability for bias, even in the absence of a free speech appeal. (d) Examination of mechanism supports our theorizing that these appeals work by activating concerns about free speech and by reducing the relative weight placed on concerns about bias. (e) An intervention that shifted attention back to the consequences of bias offset the effects of the free speech appeal. Our findings illustrate the exculpatory effect of a free speech appeal, even for explicitly racist and sexist speech. These findings advance our understanding of how people navigate the tension between free speech permissions and biased speech prohibitions, whichcontributes to scholarship about how diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts get undermined.
The Social Behavior Interest Group consists of members of the university community who are interested in social psychological research. The SBIG supports an active program of visiting speakers. The group meets weekly to hear speakers describe their recent research. Since 1990, SBIG has brought in numerous distinguished visiting speakers. Presentations have included contemporary issues in the study of attitudes, social cognition, prejudice & stereotyping, and also applied research questions in the domains of health and consumer behavior.