EOTO 2: The Spiral of Silence Theory

The Spiral of Silence Theory

When I selected this topic, the name of the theory itself was intriguing enough. When I took a deeper dive into the theory I was intrigued even more. Here is a look into The Spiral of Silence Theory.

This theory started in 1965, with a German federal election campaign. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann sent out a series of surveys that were made to see people who participated in election opinions. The results show that citizen's intend for voting on a certain party did not change until the last minute. The idea was that people noticed that the party with the majority of people was going to win, so, therefore, they decided to change last minute because their vote wouldn't change the outcome. 

The Spiral of Silence is a theory that if someone's opinion is with the minority of the group, they prefer to stay silent rather than talk about it. This is usually when it comes to more controversial or morally loaded topics, for example, elections. The willingness of people to express their opinions will decline if they are on the minority side. But the opposite will happen with the majority of the group. You will be more vocal with your opinions when you know you side with the majority of the group. 

With this theory, you are making decisions in your head without realizing it. Many people have that fear of isolation, whether they know it or not if they speak about their opinions if it does not match with the group. Therefore people avoid talking about their opinions in public so they would not get hate for them, even though they have the right to their opinions. But people care about their reputation and how they are perceived so to avoid criticism they stay silent. This then will create a spiral of silence because they will stay silent more often than not. Another unconscious decision being made is when they see other's opinions as a threat. When someone has an opinion that is part of the minority, they will immediately criticize them or even not talk to them. Therefore people will not say something to avoid criticism and backlash from it. 

When someone feels confident about their opinions being with the majority, they will speak out more often. However, the fear of speaking out about one's opinions may build up constantly having someone stay silent. On top of this, one may feel they have to distance themselves from places as well. What people do not realize is that they believe that one's opinions have some sort of moral component to them, which will strengthen one's criticism against another. Many people try to use social media as a platform to help those with the minority opinion to feel that they can express their opinions. But, it was shown that social media did not have a big impact on helping those expressing opinions. Many people prefer to express their opinions face-to-face setting, though it will lead to the spiral of silence theory more often.