Is the Third-Person Effect Real? A Critical Examination of Rationales, Testing Methods, and Previous Findings of the Third-Person Effect on Censorship Attitudes

Regarding the effect of the third-person perception on censorship attitudes, the present study first highlighted logical weaknesses of previously proposed rationales and limitations of previously used statistical models to test the effect. This study reanalyzed data from past research on the effect of the third-person perception. In Study 1, the average effects of the other-self perceptual gap in the media influence on censorship attitudes were estimated based on reports from 13 previous studies (total N = 6,414). Study 2 reanalyzed Schmierbach, Boyle, Xu, and McLeod's (2011) correlational data (N = 692). The results of these two studies showed that the presumed effect on others is a stronger predictor of censorship attitudes than the other-self differential in perceived media effect.