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Revisiting China’s internet censorship in the “repression-dissent puzzle
Author(s)
Date Issued
2025
Conference
Citation
Guo, J. (13 Jun 2025). Revisiting China’s internet censorship in the “repression-dissent puzzle. 75th Annual ICA Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Effects of censorship experiences through negative emotions arousal Revisiting the “repression-dissent puzzle”, this study examines China’s Internet censorship practices, its effects on Internet users, and the underlying mechanisms direct to chilling effects or resistance. Combining psychological reactance theory and affective intelligence theory, this study employs an on-line experiment among Chinese mainland Internet users to unblock the black box of reactance after experiencing Internet censorship. It proposed a dual-way affective reactance model (i.e., through anger and fear) to explain why censorship experiences could make citizens swing between resistance and obedience. In other words, encountering censorship, while the affective reactance of anger generally leads to a backlash effect, a parallel path through fear may force users to the opposite directions. The moderating role of censorship justification was also discussed.
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