Pressure to conform: Political self-censorship among co-partisans

Recent surveys indicate most Americans are reluctant to share their political views on social media. This study examines how social identity and group composition shape self-censorship in a simulated social media setting. I recruited Democrats and Republicans (N=758) to complete a survey about their political views and randomized them into to chats to discuss a politically contentious issue with members of the other party or members from their own party. I find Democrats are more likely to disclose their opinions to Republicans than to fellow Democrats. Yet Republicans were no more likely to express their opinions to Democrats or Republicans. This research underscores the significance of political identity dynamics on the expression of minority views and uses a behavioral measure of self-censorship which may improve upon previous self-reported measures of self-censorship. My study thus contributes to ongoing debates with political sociology, social psychology, and the emerging field of computational social science.