I have just been reading the chapter about Scarcity in Robert B Cialdini's book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

This chapter is all about "buy now" psychology. However it includes a section on Censorship - a few quotes

Both sides in the struggle seem to be well intentioned, and the issues are not simple, since they involve such matters as morality, art, parental controls over the schools, and First Amendment freedoms

He quotes research at Purdue University where students were asked in a controlled experiment their attitudes to a book which had an age restriction warning about adult content. Those who saw the warning were more inclined to want to read the book and were more favourably disposed to the content of the book (even before they read it) than the group for whom there was no warning. The research is categoric - censorship creates scarcity and people want it because of the scarcity.

if we are to believe the implications of the research, then the censorship is likely to increase the desire of students for sexual material and, consequently, to cause them to view themselves as the kind of individuals who like such material

The second part of this quote carries the rub for me. Scarcity increases the possibility o someone liking something before they even get it. .

I grew up in a country (South Africa pre-1994) which had strict censorship of adult material (and political material). Now I like to think I am a law abiding citizen but I certainly did smuggle and possess banned adult material, because it was banned material. And I certainly read a fair amount of banned political material - it was my job as a trainee lawyer to understand that stuff too.