The spiral of silence theory, also known as the theory of public opinion, is a political science and mass communication theory holding that a person's own perception of how public opinion is distributed influences that person's willingness to express their own opinion out loud. Individuals become more confident and outspoken about an opinion when they perceive that it is widely shared within their group, but grow more reserved and inclined toward silence when they perceive that their own opinion is actually unpopular with the group, since from the individual's own perspective, not becoming isolated from the group matters more than whether their personal judgment gets heard. The spiral itself develops as a minority voluntarily silences itself out of this fear of isolation, which in turn makes the majority appear louder and leads the majority to mistake the silence for agreement and to believe it faces little or no real opposition, which then makes the minority even less likely to speak up in turn.
Facts
Core ClaimAn individual's perception of the distribution of public opinion influences that individual's willingness to express their own opinions. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Type of PhenomenonSocial or Interpersonal Phenomenon 1 Connections
Sources
1. Spiral of silence, Wikipedia
Lead section, first sentence
The spiral of silence theory is a political science and mass communication theory which states that an individual's perception of the distribution of public opinion influences that individual's willingness to express their own opinions.
History section
In 1974, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, a German political scientist, created the model called 'Spiral of Silence.'
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
According to Glynn (1995), "the major components of the spiral of silence include (1) an issue of public interest; (2) divisiveness on the issue; (3) a quasi-statistical sense that helps an individual perceive the climate of opinion as well as estimate the majority and minority opinion; (4) 'fear of isolation' from social interaction "(though, whether this is a causal fact...
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification, additional value cognitive
According to Glynn (1995), "the major components of the spiral of silence include (1) an issue of public interest; (2) divisiveness on the issue; (3) a quasi-statistical sense that helps an individual perceive the climate of opinion as well as estimate the majority and minority opinion; (4) 'fear of isolation' from social interaction "(though, whether this is a causal fact...
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