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It also argues that well-intentioned rules and enforcement may worsen the cultural realities that drive silence, while acknowledging that jokes and off-topic remarks can still move academic dialogue forward.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/self-censorship-and-the-academic-mission/588199/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/self-censorship-and-the-academic-mission/588199.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Aditya","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What causes self-censorship in academic settings?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"People hold back when they fear losing friends or status, becoming targets of hostility, or facing career risks such as poor grades, jeopardizing tenure, promotion, or elections.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the text define “discussion” in academia?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Discussion includes formal engagement like colloquia, seminars, and meetings, but also informal conversations in halls or cafeterias and even written scholarly publications and messages or cartoons placed on office doors.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does the author doubt that rules of conduct will solve self-censorship?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The argument is that self-censorship arises from the realities of university culture and fear-based incentives; rules may create coordination benefits but are likely to make matters worse in this context.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},588199,1792209305,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":106,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962085564549,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Acad. Quest . (2021) 34.2 DOI 10. 51845/34su .2.10  \nSelf-Censorship and the Academic Mission  \nMark Mercer  \nSex, race, religion, Israel-Palestine, pandemic restrictions, abortion: speak your mind or even just float an idea and you might have to pay a steep price. So you hold your tongue. Self-censorship is widely practiced in university communities, under-discussed though it is. (Self-censorship is itself a topic about which people self-censor.) What to do about it?  \nOne suggestion is that universities and professors post rules of conduct designed to facilitate free and open discussion of sensitive topics. I’m skeptical that creating and enforcing rules will help at all. Rules are good for solving coordination problems but self-censorship stems from the realities of university culture. Indeed, as I will argue, rules would likely make things worse.  \n“Self-censorship” can refer to any instance of holding back a comment for whatever reason. Not all occasions on which a person self-censors, then, are occasions for regret. Self-censorship is worth worrying about when people withhold comments they think would contribute positively to the discussion. They withhold them out of fear of losing friends or status or of becoming a target for hostility and ill will. Self-censorship is worth worrying about when students refrain from participating fully in a discussion because they fear bad grades or when professors clam up at meetings because they fear jeopardizing their quest for tenure, promotion, or election to an office or committee.  \nBy “discussion,” I mean, of course, engagement in colloquia and seminars and conversing with colleagues or students in formal meetings. But I’m also using the term to include talking in the hallways and cafeterias and asking questions of visiting speakers. And I am not limiting “discussion” to speaking. Both scholarly and academic publications count as discussion. Even messages or cartoons on one’s office door do. When a person declines to say something (in the expanded meaning of “say”) that he thinks would likely contribute to the  \nMark Mercer is a professor of philosophy at Saint Mary’s University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. He last appeared in AQ in winter 2020 with“Why Scholars Won’t Research Group Differences .”  \nacademic purpose of the discussion because he is afraid of what might happen to him for saying it, that person is self-censoring.  \nLet’s suppose the discussion, whether spoken or written, is directed toward figuring out how something stands. (Figuring out how things stand is one of the three central projects within academic life. The others are fashioning interpretations of things and examining the evaluative attitudes we take to things.) We think that by articulating and examining ideas about some phenomenon, we will come closer to understanding it. Articulating and examining ideas is the process in which we’re engaged, and it occurs to a participant in the discussion that a particular idea or criticism would help. But that participant doesn’t voice his criticism. He keeps quiet because of his fear that bringing that idea into the discussion will cost him something that matters—people’s good will, say, or his social status or career prospects.  \nNow the idea that one keeps to oneself needn’t be something one believes. Suppose it occurs to me to mention the hypothesis that when two different human populations meet, typically the males of one try to kill the other males and capture the females. I might, in fact, think that this contention is false or based on a misinterpretation of the evidence. Nonetheless, I judge that bringing that hypothesis to the attention of other participants in the discussion will assist us in figuring out how something—the populating of Eurasia, say—occurred.  \nI’ll add, since it’s rarely acknowledged, that jokes, witticisms, and offtopic comments can be useful in moving a discussion forward","cbCaihrqKm9ALcLP","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihrqKm9ALcLP","pdf",218893,"English","# Self-Censorship and the Academic Mission\n## What Self-Censorship Is and Why It Matters\n## Definitions of Academic Discussion\n## Fear, Status, and Career Incentives\n## Rules and Enforcement Skepticism\n## Jokes and Off-Topic Comments\n## Institutional Topics and Academic Relevance\n## When Self-Censorship Is or Isn’t a Problem","[{\"question\":\"What causes self-censorship in academic settings?\",\"answer\":\"People hold back when they fear losing friends or status, becoming targets of hostility, or facing career risks such as poor grades, jeopardizing tenure, promotion, or elections.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the text define “discussion” in academia?\",\"answer\":\"Discussion includes formal engagement like colloquia, seminars, and meetings, but also informal conversations in halls or cafeterias and even written scholarly publications and messages or cartoons placed on office doors.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author doubt that rules of conduct will solve self-censorship?\",\"answer\":\"The argument is that self-censorship arises from the realities of university culture and fear-based incentives; rules may create coordination benefits but are likely to make matters worse in this context.\"}]","Self-Censorship and the Academic Mission | PDF",1792064738,18]