Development and Validation of a Measure to Assess Book Banning Views and Identification of Key Predictors of Those Attitudes

Matthew Mulvaney (HDFS) PI, Development and Validation of a Measure to Assess Book Banning Views and Identification of Key Predictors of Those Attitudes, Institute for Humane Studies – Small Project-Based Grant Program. 1/15/23-8/31/23

This research seeks to develop a valid assessment that can be utilized to further understand the dynamics of book-banning attitudes. The rates of book-banning attempts across the United States have increased substantially in the past couple of years and it is important to understand their causes. The purpose of this grant is to therefore develop a validated measure of book-banning attitudes that can be used by myself and others to study this phenomenon further. A sample will be recruited via online sampling techniques. The participants will respond to a wide array of statements regarding book banning. Factor analysis will then be performed on the participant responses to the statements and the factors will be correlated with key personality and contextual variables.