The Spiral of Silence Theory

 One of the commonalities that almost all humans share is the desire to fit in. Whether that be to wear the right clothes or have the right hobbies, as human beings we are constantly attempting to fit more adequately into society. The Spiral of Silence theory helps solidify the belief that humans are doing what they can to fit into society however possible.

    So what is The Spiral of Silence theory? The Spiral of Silence theory is a theory developed by German survey and communication researcher Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in the 1970s. This theory basically states that people’s willingness to express their opinions on controversial public issues is affected by their largely unconscious perception of those opinions as being either popular or unpopular. Specifically, the perception that one’s opinion is unpopular tends to inhibit or discourage one’s expression of it, while the perception that it is popular tends to have the opposite effect. 

    So now that we understand what the Spiral of Silence theory is, what are its pros and what are its cons? So the main pro that I was able to find is that people become more confident in their beliefs when around like minded people or when their opinion is considered popular amongst society. However, there are significantly more cons to this theory when it comes down to how it impacts society. The cons include people hiding their opinions due to fear of being isolated from society. This can negatively affect people personally. When you are hiding your true feelings it can make you feel isolated even when you are still around people and cause harm to your mental health and self image. Another con is how much public opinion influences people. When the public opinion has this much power over people, that leads to the people of society being manipulated and not feeling that they are capable of doing anything about it. Finally, people are less likely to stand up for what is right when it is not the popular belief. There was a time when racist and sexist beliefs were the majority and if nobody ever stood up against those, our society would never have begun to evolve and stop the abuses we put different groups through. The only way the world ever improves is if we are continuously bettering it and if nobody is willing to speak up about what is wrong with it then nothing will ever change.

    Now that we have identified what is good and what is bad in this theory, we can discuss how it affects our society. This theory is something all groups have to face. No person will constantly be surrounded by people who share the same viewpoint for the entirety of their life, and now with the internet it is nearly impossible to avoid seeing opposing opinions. This entire theory is based on majority vs minority, however this doesn’t just apply to the conventional popular and unpopular beliefs within our society as United States citizens. This applies to all the groups that we may find ourselves in throughout our lives. Our beliefs may be reciprocated and popular within a certain group of people that we spend our time with, but it may be unpopular and frowned upon within another. People unknowingly become more or less likely to express how they feel as they alternate between these different groups of people. One thing that has had a large impact on the relevancy of this theory is the invention of social media. Social media has opened up gateways for everyone to find someone out there who has the same opinions and beliefs as them. It matters less now being isolated from the people in your daily circle because you can find other people who will support you through the internet. Although this may sound like a good thing, there are some negative repercussions. With people able to find solidarity for any belief, this opens up gateways for people with racist, sexist, homophobic, and other offensive beliefs to become more vocal and expressive on the internet. A study of Facebook users’ comments and posts designed to see how the Spiral of Silence theory held up with modern day users led researchers to the conclusion that people with minority beliefs felt quite comfortable publicly expressing racist opinions on the internet. They found through a manual coding of 1,161 comments that 18% included some form of othering and 25% included some form of racist discourse.

    

    With all of that being said, the Spiral of Silence still has a big impact on our likelihood to speak out about our beliefs. The Spiral of Silence theory remains accurate to some extent despite the expansion of technology.