| Summary: | The aim of this study is to quantify the extent to which political correctness, understood as an implicit social convention of restraint on public expression, operates within a community. Due to a scarcity of prior experimental research in the area, a new method was developed for the purpose of the study. Using random selection, the treatment consists of exposing groups averaging 10 individuals to a survey on diversity and immigration matters. The effect is measured as the discrepancy in attitudes that is revealed between anonymous and non-anonymous responses to the treatment survey. Control groups are similarly exposed to a survey on traditional left-right matters. The discrepancies are then compared. The results are controlled for possible influence by factors including group size, sex ratio, and length of study. The general effect of the treatment is not statistically significant, possibly as a result of small sample size. Further analysis shows a significant positive correlation between the proportion of women and the extent of attitude discrepancy. On one interpretation, this means that women in the population are on average more responsive to political correctness than men. Due to the population’s skewed characteristics, the results are not generalised. Future researchers in the area are advised to draw their sample from a more representative population, to investigate additional subject matters and to collect more sophisticated data, in particular on the level of the individual.
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