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

Hayes, Glynn, and Shanahan (2005a ) 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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Communication methods and measures Vol. 4; no. 3; pp. 256 - 272
Main Authors:	Hayes, Andrew F., Uldall, Brian R., Glynn, Carroll J.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Philadelphia Taylor & Francis Group 31-08-2010 Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:	Measurement techniques Public opinion Self control Social sciences Validation studies
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Hayes, Glynn, and Shanahan (2005a ) 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.
ISSN:	1931-2458 1931-2466
DOI:	10.1080/19312458.2010.505503