The Relationship Between Conflict Avoidance and Support for Speech Restrictions

Mass publics often express a desire for public and private institutions to place restrictions on speech. This research proposes a personality-based explanation of support for such censorship focusing on the trait of conflict avoidance. For people who seek to avoid conflict, restrictions on speech serve as a mechanism to reduce social disagreements when speech is conflict-laden. I test this theory using a national survey of U.S. adults. OLS regression estimates show conflict avoidance relates to greater calls for public and private institutions to restrict controversial speech. Moreover, conflict avoidance increases people’s susceptibility to censorship related counterarguments. When informed about the effectiveness of banning certain types of speech, free speech advocates who wish to avoid conflict exhibit greater attitude change towards censorship than those who embrace conflict. When informed that censorship is unlikely to reduce conflict, people who wish to avoid conflict can become more supportive of free speech.