Spiral of Silence (Group 3)

Spiral of Silence was a public opinion theory developed by German Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann.  According to her theory, people who think they are in the minority opinion will not express tier view or keep it hidden. As fewer and fewer people with the minority view speak out, there is spiral or a decrease in opposing views. A recent example is the surprise election of Donald Trump when many voters kept their support hidden.  The theory is beneficial when it comes to people with racist, homophobic or other prejudiced views.  The Spiral of Silence will shame them into not expressing their minority detrimental opinions. The fear is that since Donald Trump was elected there are more hate crimes being committed as the racist etc are more comfortable voicing their opinions.  

The election of Trump was a social disruption which gives people the idea that many more people share their views than originally thought and they break their silence. Noelle-Neumann used her theory to try to explain Hitler's rise to power and why more people didn’t speak out against him.

It is important that we all be aware of this bias in our own behavior and think of what happened in the Hitler era and ensure we do not fall into the spiral of silence in America.


http://noelle-neumann.de/scientific-work/spiral-of-silence/