CONSEQUENCES OF 3RD-PERSON PERCEPTION IN SUPPORT OF PRESS RESTRICTIONS IN THE OJ-SIMPSON-TRIAL

A nationwide telephone survey about the O.J. Simpson trial affirmed th e third-person effect perceptual-bias hypothesis that people perceive news media coverage to exert greater influence on other people than on themselves. The study did not indicate an association between third-p erson perception and support for restrictions on press coverage of the trial. The findings suggested that respondents' opinions about Simpso n's guilt interacted with the third-person effect and that perceptual bias remains a fruitful, although complex, predictor of support for pr ess restrictions. It was suggested that people perceive issues as legi timate or illegitimate topics of public discourse, and that issue legi timacy may be associated with willingness to support press restriction s.