Spiral of Silence

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Have you ever been apart of a team or group when suddenly a question is raised and the others quickly make their opinions known? Before you can answer you find that the rest of your team have already agreed on one idea/opinion. Even if it's not something you fully agree with you decide to stay silent as to not rock the boat? Or have you ever been the odd person out because you decided to share your opinion? There's a theory on that: The Spiral of Silence.

 What is the Spiral of Silence?

The spiral of silence is a theory regarding people's willingness to express their opinions on public controversial issues. Often these opinions are affected by the unconscious perception of that opinion being popular or unpopular. When the opinion is unpopular, people will often keep from openly expressing their opinion.  However when an opinion is popular people will be eager to express it.

Where did the Spiral come from?

 In 1965 communication researcher Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann and her research team had made a surprising discovery in a German election that same year. Months before the said election the team studied people's s answers for who they were going to vote for. The 2 parties were in a dead heat until the last few weeks before the election. Suddenly several voters changed their minds and began supporting one of the parties more than the other, the data jumped from 45% support to 50%. The results from the data followed through to the election the party was elected to power.

So what happened? Well, the voter's interest remained unchanged but their expectations in the election had changed. Not mention a lot of undecided voters cast their votes to the winning party. Noelle-Neumann suspected the dramatic change was a result of the visit from the Queen of England Elizabeth II being accompanied by a member of the winning party. The visit had created so much hope among the supports that the opposed assumed that their views were 'so unpopular' that the other party was guaranteed to be victorious.

Important Highlights of the Theory

 People naturally and unconsciously are so afraid of social isolation they'll monitor 'public' (known to everyone) behaviors. It is human nature to want to fit in, there are strength and safety in numbers, so avoiding things that will you on the outs with a group or public. People will avoid sharing their opinions and slowly the 'mass' opinion gains more strength and becomes harder and harder to speak out against even when people feel differently. It may be hard to understand how people get caught up in this as an outsider looking in. Really can you say that you've never just kept quiet been told to keep your head down to just get through something?

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