Validating the Willingness to Self-Censor Scale II: Inhibition of Opinion Expression in a Conversational Setting

Hayes, Glynn, and Shanahan (2005a Hayes, A. F., Glynn, C. J. and Shanahan, J. 2005a. Willingness to self-censor: A construct and measurement tool for public opinion research. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 17: 298–323. Crossref], Web of Science ®] , Google Scholar]) introduced the Willingness to Self-Censor Scale as a measure of the extent to which a person uses cues about the climate of opinion when deciding whether to publicly voice opinions. The study reported here provides new validation evidence, collected during actual rather than hypothetical discussions. Each participant interacted with two confederates about a controversial topic. The confederates were trained to produce a discussion climate that was either consistent or inconsistent with the participant's own opinion on the topic. The manipulation of the climate of opinion affected opinion expression only among dispositional self-censors (i.e., those scoring relatively higher on the scale), even after controlling for dispositional shyness. As expected, people who scored relatively low were unaffected by information about the climate of opinion. These results further attest to the construct validity of the Willingness to Self-Censor Scale.