Self-Censorship in Public Discourse

Glenn C. Loury
Additional contact information
Glenn C. Loury: Boston University

Rationality and Society, 1994, vol. 6, issue 4, 428-461

Abstract: Uncertainty about what motivates “senders†of public messages leads “receivers†to “read between the lines†to discern the sender's deepest commitments. Anticipating this, senders “write between the lines,†editing their expressions so as to further their own ends. I examine how this interactive process of inference and deceit affects the quality and extent of public deliberations on sensitive issues. A principle conclusion is that genuine moral discourse on difficult social issues can become impossible when the risks of upsetting some portion of one's audience are too great. Reliance on euphemism and platitude should be expected in this strategic climate. Groups may embark on a tragic course of action, believed by many at the outset to be ill-conceived, but that has become impossible to criticize.

Date: 1994
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463194006004002 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:6:y:1994:i:4:p:428-461

DOI: 10.1177/1043463194006004002

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Rationality and Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().