Two-thirds of Americans say that they are afraid to say what they believe in public because someone else might not like it, finds a new study that tracked 1 million people over a 20-year period, between 2000 and 2020. The shift in attitude has led to 6.5% more people self-censoring.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/10/1/121937/202992/Changes-in-Need-for-Uniqueness-From-2000-Until

From the linked article:

KEY POINTS

– ⁠“The land of the free and the home of the brave” has become a place of self-censorship.
– Our fear of rejection by the crowd is ultimately a practical one, based on ancient realities.
– We need to agree that it is important to listen first to understand.
– We need to accept that arguments ad hominem have no place in public discourse.

Are Americans afraid to speak their minds? According to a recent study, “the land of the free and the home of the brave” has become a place of self-censorship. Two-thirds of us say that we are afraid to say what we believe in public because someone else might not like it.

These dispiriting results come from a study that tracked 1 million people over a 20-year period, between 2000 and 2020. The shift in attitude has led to 6.5% more people self-censoring rather than speaking their minds. That is a huge shift for measurements of attitude in a short time.