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A Psychological Firewall? Risk Perceptions and Public Support for Online Censorship in Russia*
Author(s) -
Nisbet Erik C.,
Kamenchuk Olga,
Dal Aysenur
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12435
Subject(s) - censorship , firewall (physics) , perception , risk perception , social psychology , psychology , political science , internet privacy , public relations , business , law , computer science , neuroscience , accretion (finance) , schwarzschild radius , finance , charged black hole
Objective Authoritarian regimes commonly justify Internet censorship by framing the Internet as a threat to their citizens that must be tightly controlled for their own protection. This threat rhetoric underpins government censorship and creates a “psychological firewall” driving public support for a censored Internet. Methods Based on risk and decision‐making scholarship, we evaluate how mass media and partisan regime support promulgate these threat perceptions, and in turn how they influence citizen attitudes about censorship. Employing Russia as a case study, we tested our hypotheses with a national survey ( N = 1,600) conducted in May 2014. Results We found that reliance on Russian national TV news predicted greater Internet threat perceptions, and in turn these threat perceptions significantly increased support for online political censorship. Conclusion Approval of the Putin government further amplified the impact of these threat perceptions on support for censorship. Implications for understanding psychological foundations for support for censorship in authoritarian contexts are discussed.