WHEN VALUE-EXPRESSION ENHANCES MOTIVATION TO REASON ABOUT ATTITUDES TOWARDS CENSORSHIP IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The issue of censorship has been of great interest worldwide in recent years. In Singapore, there has been concern about the lack of civil discussion regarding the merits of censorship laws. The present research thus investigated whether value-expression can enhance people’s motivation to engage in deliberative thinking about censorship. In Study 1, participants completed measures of value-expression, attitudes towards race-related censorship, and cognitive processing motivation for race-related censorship. In Study 2, value-expressive salience was manipulated rather than measured. In Study 3, we assessed attitudes towards a new censorship law in Singapore, and endorsement of self-direction and security. In Studies 1 and 2, value-expression enhanced cognitive processing motivation for anti-censorship individuals. For pro-censorship individuals, cognitive processing motivation tended to be high regardless of value-expression. Study 3 revealed that self-direction enhanced cognitive processing motivation for anti-censorship individuals, while security enhanced cognitive processing motivation for pro-censorship individuals. Implications and future directions are discussed.