this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Study suggests social media is key contributor to self-censorship

Most Republican voters support childhood vaccine mandates, yet may be discouraged from publicly expressing these views, a new study suggests.  

To determine the source of this disconnect, researchers conducted a survey that revealed differences between Republican voters who support childhood vaccine mandates and those who do not.

According to the study, most Republicans surveyed supported immunization requirements for children and held favorable attitudes toward vaccine safety, while those who said they opposed vaccine mandates did not acknowledge this support exists – and expressed a greater willingness to share their vaccine views to others. 

In contrast, the Republicans who supported vaccine mandates were largely aware that their views were in the majority, but tended to be less outspoken.

This phenomenon, called the false consensus effect, describes a misperception by people about how widespread their views are and a belief that their opinions are shared by others – when they are not.

“Those in the majority may simply sit out of the conversation because they see online environments as being dominated by extreme views and don’t want to engage in uncivil discourse,” said Dixon. “What’s significant is that those in the majority may self-silence even when they are aware of their majority status.”

The study was recently published in Human Communication Research.

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[–] Fixbeat@lemmy.ml 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I suspect a lot of these Republicans stay silent on all the nazi style shit their party is doing too. Hopefully they stay home or vote D.

My job has a huge chunk of Republicans. They absolutely cherry pick specific things.

We'll do the nazi thing if it stops people asking for abortion. We'll do the "kill immigrants" thing if trans people can't walk into bathrooms.

[–] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

I guess that’s the real silent majority.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

Republicans treat their politics like religion. You don’t get to question it. You will conform or be ostracized. Your group has the right [god/politics], all the others are outsiders to be converted or fought against. Do what the man in the pulpit or on the screen says, he has all the answers and will fix all your problems. You just gotta believe. Huge amounts of peer pressure to conform, so even if you think differently about something you keep your mouth shut.