Why People Engage in Political Censorship

People seem willing to censor disagreeable political and moral ideas. Five studies explore why people engage in political censorship and test a potential route to decreasing censorship. We find that perceptions of harm and lies are key for understanding political censorship. While Americans report being generally supportive of free speech and against censorship (Study 1), they are willing to censor ideas they see as harmful lies (Study 2)—which are often ideas from political opponents (Study 3). Building on work demonstrating the perceived truth of experiences, we test an experience-sharing intervention that, among college students, decreases the perception that controversial campus speakers are spreading harmful lies, thereby reducing students’ willingness to censor their ideas (Study 4). Reducing the perception of harmful lies via experience-sharing also reduces censorship behaviors (i.e., amending and redacting controversial political messages; Study 5).