(PS13-B40) Safetyism Beliefs Are Associated with Internalizing Symptoms and Cognitive Distortions

In recent years, there has been increasing controversy about attitudes related to “cancel culture,” the need or importance of protecting vulnerable people from exposure to speech or ideas that might be offensive or remind them of distress, and related constructs. Some have noted that well-intentioned efforts to protect people may ironically have long-term negative consequences such as teaching people that they are fragile or vulnerable, resulting in (and possibly deriving from) things such as anxiety (e.g., Lukianoff & Haidt, 2018; Bellet et al., 2020). Although there has been speculation about why and how people hold beliefs in these domains, as well as the relationship between such beliefs and increasing rates of depression and anxiety in young people and a possible increased sense of vulnerability to harm, to our knowledge only one study has examined these claims empirically (Celniker et al., 2021).

96 undergraduate students at Swarthmore College completed measures of the tendency to perceive oneself interpersonally as a victim, of beliefs that words can harm, and that it is important to silence those voicing illegitimate views. They also completed measures of symptoms (depression, anxiety, stress), traumatic experiences, and maladaptive cognitions (the tendency to engage in 10 cognitive distortions, posttraumatic cognitions, perceived posttraumatic vulnerability, thought-action fusion, and psychological inflexibility).

Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress predicted the perception of interpersonal victimhood (r = .31, p < .01) and beliefs that words can harm (r = .21, p = .04), but not that it is important to silence others (r = .04, p = .72). After controlling for symptoms, nine cognitive distortions (mind reading, catastrophizing, dichotomous thinking, emotional reasoning, labeling, mental filter, overgeneralization, personalization, should statements), posttraumatic cognitions, perceived posttraumatic vulnerability about oneself, and psychological inflexibility still significantly predicted the perception of interpersonal victimhood (prs = .20-.34). Three cognitive distortions (catastrophizing, emotional reasoning, labeling) and perceived posttraumatic vulnerability about oneself and others still significantly predicted beliefs that words can harm (prs = .23-.29). Only posttraumatic cognitions significantly predicted beliefs in the importance of silencing others (pr = .20).

These results suggest that perceptions of victimhood and beliefs that words can harm are associated with symptoms, as well as a number of maladaptive cognitive styles above and beyond symptoms, including catastrophizing, emotional reasoning, and perceptions of being vulnerable. Future experimental and prospective research designs are necessary to examine causality. In addition, the measure of beliefs in the importance of silencing others focuses on speech about society-level factors (e.g., politics), and future research should examine beliefs about silencing speech that more directly could cause emotional harm to individuals.