Banning books may not have the intended outcome.
Sabari Rajan Karmegan, assistant professor of information systems and operations management at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, reads along to find out why.
Sabari Rajan Karmegam is an assistant professor of Information Systems and Operations Management at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Maryland. Before academia, Dr. Karmegam spent over a decade managing large-scale IT programs. His research focuses on Digital Strategy and Online Platforms, with work published in Information Systems Research (ISR). He teaches courses in data mining, business analytics, and database management.
The Streisand Effect of Book Bans
Did you know that books can become more famous if they are banned? In the U.S., the number of book bans has gone through the roof in the past few years. Between 2021 and 2022, more than 1,600 titles were challenged or taken out of libraries. Books that talk about race, gender, and sexuality are often banned, which has caused heated arguments all over the country. When we looked at how these bans affected libraries, we were surprised to find that they made the banned books more popular, with an average 12% rise in circulation.
To get these results, we analyzed library data from 38 states, tracking book circulations from January 2021 to June 2022. We focused on the 25 most-banned books, identified by PEN America and the American Library Association, and compared them to 349 similar books that weren’t banned. What we discovered was unambiguous: book bans usually result in an increase in readership not just locally but even nationally. Lesser-known writers benefit most from this attention since it provides visibility they might not have otherwise had. This is especially true when news of bans spreads on social media.
We also found that in Republican-leaning states, book bans were positively associated with political donations. So while it may look like bans aren’t working because the books are becoming more popular, they’re actually very effective at raising money for the politicians who support the bans. Because of this, expect to see more of them in the future.
The bigger picture? Attempts to silence ideas often end up drawing even more attention to them. Book bans don’t just fail to suppress ideas—they amplify them, showing that censorship has consequences far beyond what anyone might expect. As these debates continue, it’s clear they’re having a major impact on culture, society, and even politics.
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