Why do people self-censor on social media? A metacognitive approach

Abstract

A lot of focus has been put on the fact that people are sharing too much misinformation online; however, the failure to share accurate and high-quality content may be just as problematic. Indeed, although there is a growing body of work examining the psychological mechanisms that contribute to the spread of misinformation, little focus has been directed on why people fail to share accurate content online. One potential explanation is self-censorship—when an individual does not share their opinion with a group that they perceive to hold differing opinions. One possibility is that self-censorship may emerge from metacognitive factors, such as self-reflection about what is appropriate to share. If this is true, then it may be that the people who are most likely to self-censor are also those who should be sharing the most. Consistent with this, I found that people who were better able to distinguish between true and false news were actually more willing to self-censor. Self-censorship was also modestly associated with lower closemindedness and less overconfidence. However, counter to expectations, it was found that preference for effortful thought was negatively associated with self-censorship. These findings indicate that metacognitive factors do, in fact, impact willingness to self-censor but additional work is still needed as the effects were small.