This study examines the relationship among negative media content, social distance and third-person effect and support for restriction of media. The results of this study indicate that respondents tend to perceive greater negative effects of media content on others than on themselves. The results also show that the magnitude of perceptual bias increased as the perceived negative effects of media content and the social distance of the comparison group increased.
More importantly, this study contributes to the growing literature on third-person effect by demonstrating that the magnitude of perceptual bias is not a reliable predictor of support for media restriction.