EOTO Terms & Concepts: Spiral of Silence

The spiral of silence is a technique most often used in the realms of communications and political science. Originally proposed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, a well-known political scientist, this theory demonstrates the positive and negative correlation between public opinion and personally-held convictions and opinions. This model is such a great model for what’s going on in today’s world like censorship and how it can/has affected people, especially certain demographics.

There are 4 major steps in the spiral of silence. Here they are:

1. One has an intense desire to fit in and be socially accepted. This desire fuels one’s inclination to speak up, speak out and share their opinion.

2. When people are in a setting of a “marketplace of ideas” and everyone is sharing opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and core convictions, there is an innate ability to read the room and see what ideas are being more accepted than others. Individuals who believe their ideas are floating to the top are inclined to speak out more. Conversely, one who feels like their point of view is sinking, unpopular, and unaccepted, begins to hold back and not say as much.

3. Popular opinions become more prevalent while the less popular ones dissipate. And this dynamic creates a sometimes false illusion that popular means “true” and “strong” and unpopular means “false” and weak.

4. Because of the previously stated dynamic, the spiral begins to occur. This spiral causes people to follow the central point of view and push unpopular points of view to the “back burner.” The degree of the spiral is evident in the number of people who are fearful and apprehensive about publicly sharing their stance on issues.

          

The spiral of silence has so many implications but here are the two that are very evident to me and that I personally have a frame of reference for. This spiral implies that individuals with minority-categorized views eventually self-censor themselves out of fear that their views will be censored and not socially accepted. According to The New York Post, of a polled 1,500 people, 66% of people said that they either censor themselves all the time or sometimes. And according to the CATO Institute, 62% of Americans say that they are fretful in sharing the political beliefs they hold.

This spiral also implies that the “marketplace of ideas” isn’t as strong or isn’t as evident. One can deduct that if there was a strong marketplace of ideas, one would not have fear sharing his/her views because the environment would be conducive to the varying viewpoints. This spiral lowers and limits the efficacy of the marketplace of ideas by undermining its ability to allow competing ideas to battle and rise or fall on their own.

This spiral of silence affects people individually as well as society as a whole. This spiral negatively affects society being that America was founded on the principle of free speech and embraces the concept of diversity of opinion and belief. This spiral inevitably creates single stories, being that only one side is heard: the loudest and the most popular. Therefore making society one-sided and single-faceted. 

This spiral also negatively impacts me because of how frowned-upon views are treated. Being a Black Christian conservative is not a popular worldview and way of life. So, the majority voice tried to silence me and suppress my voice. I have seen in my personal life how the majority is seen as “truth” and it has disregarded everything else, which happens to be the category I fall under. I have been censored on social media, seen as less than, and even disregarded by people of my same ethnicity just because my “voice” didn’t sound like theirs. I had a seat at the table when they looked at the color of my skin, but when I opened my mouth, they no longer wanted me to sit with them. Funny how that works, right?

As a nation we must realize that in more ways than one we are in this spiral. That is not good news. We must get back to creating spaces for everyone's opinions and belief systems to be heard and acknowledged. We need America to sound a like a symphony of various voices instead of the resounding shout of one singular voice. It is our responsibility to fix and correct the current issues from this spiral and prohibit any more spirals of silence that may try to manifest in our lives and communities. It may be difficult and divert from the current climate of society, but it is the right thing to do! America will be better for it!