Forum users' attitudes toward censorship of extreme nationalistic messages in China : a third-person effect perspective.

The major goal of this article is to examine the influence of self-construals and Internet self-efficacy on the third-person effect, within the context of Chinese online nationalism. We conducted a web-based survey with 229 online forum users in China. This paper provides empirical data for these aspects. First, Chinese Internet forum users tend to perceive others to be more influenced by radical nationalistic messages than themselves. The third-person perception (TPP) is significantly related to support for the personal regulation, but there is no association between TPP and support for authorities' censorship. Second, the findings also support the notion that an independent self-construal is positively related to the third-person perception. The interdependent self-construal does not have a significant association with TPP but influences pro-regulation attitudes in China. Finally, the impact of Internet self-efficacy is not significant. Findings of this study also provide subtantial implications for politics scholars and communication study.​Master of Communication Studie