Description:

Title: But What About My Free Speech?: Free Speech Appeals Reduce Accountability for Workplace Bias

By Ivuoma Onyeador, Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations and IPR Fellow

Abstract: Onyeador and her colleagues’ 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 reveal that 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. 
 
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. Information about a policy that mandated inclusion did not eliminate the effect, whereas a policy mandating free speech reduced accountability for bias, even in the absence of a free-speech appeal. Examination of the mechanism supports the authors' theorizing that these appeals work by activating concerns about free speech and by reducing the relative weight placed on concerns about bias. 
 
An intervention that shifted attention back to the consequences of bias offset the effects of the free-speech appeal. The authors’ findings illustrate the exculpatory effect of a free-speech appeal, even for explicitly racist and sexist speech. These findings advance understanding of how people navigate the tension between free-speech permissions and biased-speech prohibitions, which contributes to scholarship about how diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts get undermined.

This event is part of the Fay Lomax Cook Fall 2025 Colloquium Series, where our researchers from around the University share their latest policy-relevant research.

Please note all colloquia this quarter will be held in-person only.