Attitudes Towards Censorship of Political Movements in the United States of America

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Attitudes Towards Censorship of Political Movements in the United States of America Attitudes towards Censorship of Political Movements in the United States of America: #AllLivesMatter and #BlackLivesMatter A thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Psychology By Kate Margaret Dunbar Fox School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing University of Canterbury 2020 i Attitudes Towards Censorship Acknowledgements Completing this thesis has been a challenging, yet extremely interesting experience. I was fortunate to have been supported by many, and for that I am truly thankful. First, I wish to thank my primary supervisor, Dr Andrew Vonasch. Your guidance, patience, and insight has been invaluable throughout this project. Without your support and feedback this thesis would not have been possible. To my secondary supervisor, Dr Kumar Yogeeswaran. Thank-you for your assistance and feedback, particularly when we were at the initial stages of planning the questionnaires, and final feedback on this work. Without your input and specific knowledge set, the final findings may have gone in a slightly different direction. I would like to everyone who participated in this study, as without your contribution, this research could not be conducted. I would like to thank Thomas and Magnus, who in addition to Andy and Kumar, read through sections of my work, and provided many helpful comments and suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank those closest to me. To my parents, partner, siblings, friends, and colleagues. Without your continual encourage and support, it would have been a lot harder to get to the finishing line without you. I am grateful for all your patience and understanding over the last year. ii Attitudes Towards Censorship Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Attitudes towards Censorship of Political Movements in the United States of America: #AllLivesMatter and #BlackLivesMatter .............................................................................. 2 Social identity ......................................................................................................................... 3 Social activism ....................................................................................................................... 5 Free speech ............................................................................................................................. 8 Dog-whistles........................................................................................................................... 9 Censorship ............................................................................................................................ 12 Psychology of hidden motives ............................................................................................. 14 The Present Study................................................................................................................. 15 Hypotheses........................................................................................................................ 17 Study 1 Hypotheses...................................................................................................... 17 Study 2 Hypotheses...................................................................................................... 18 Study 1..................................................................................................................................... 18 Method ................................................................................................................................. 19 Participants ....................................................................................................................... 19 Manipulation ..................................................................................................................... 19 Measures ........................................................................................................................... 19 Procedure .......................................................................................................................... 20 Research Design ............................................................................................................... 21 Results .................................................................................................................................. 21 Influence of Partisanship .................................................................................................. 21 Equal Statements .............................................................................................................. 23 Political Signal .................................................................................................................. 24 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 25 Study 2..................................................................................................................................... 28 Method ................................................................................................................................. 28 Participants ....................................................................................................................... 28 Manipulation ..................................................................................................................... 29 Measures ........................................................................................................................... 29 iii Attitudes Towards Censorship Procedure .......................................................................................................................... 31 Design ............................................................................................................................... 32 Results .................................................................................................................................. 32 Linear Regression Analyses ............................................................................................. 33 Full Model ........................................................................................................................ 52 Mediation Analyses .......................................................................................................... 54 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 59 General Discussion ................................................................................................................. 60 Interactions between Level of Identification and Measure Support .................................... 60 Support of Possible Consequences for Protesting ................................................................ 62 Theoretical Model to Predict Censorship ............................................................................. 64 Mediating Influences on Censorship .................................................................................... 65 Practical and Theoretical Implications ................................................................................. 68 Limitations ........................................................................................................................... 70 Future Directions .................................................................................................................. 72 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 74 References ............................................................................................................................... 76 Appendix A: Study 1 Questionnaire .................................................................................... 83 Appendix B: Study 2 Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 97 Appendix C: Correlation Matrix for ALM condition ...................................................... 113 Appendix D: Correlation Matrix for BLM Condition ..................................................... 114 iv Attitudes Towards Censorship List of Figures Figure 1 Interaction plot of Political Support and Condition in Predicting Support of Political Statement…………………………………………………………………………...22 Figure 2 Estimated Marginal Means: Group Condition ✻ Support of Political Statement to Predict Perception of Equal Meaning………………………………………………………..24 Figure 3 Marginal Estimated Means: Group Condition ✻ Support of Political Statement to Predict Perception of Political Signal………………………………………………………..25 Figure 4 Spread of Political Partisanship within conditions………………………………..29 Figure 5 Belief that it
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