Peerceptive 3 Spiral of silence
In the Pew Report they discussed the ‘spiral of silence’ and how people tend to not to
speak publically about policy issues when their opinions are not shared with such groups.
The policy issue the researchers used was the Snowden’s-NSA leak of information to the
public about the NSA and the CIA monitoring phone, email, and text records. The public
was divided on the issue with about half (49%) believing classified information was
good, while the other 44% thought it harmed the public.1 They then asked when people
would be okay discussing the issue in different settings, with different people, and on
different platforms of discussion (social media vs conversation). It was found 86% of
people would have a conversation in person about the Snowden issue while only 42% of
social media users, Facebook and twitter users, were willing to post about it.1 Social
media was shown not to encourage personal discussion outside of Facebook. Also, the
closer the relationship with the people in each situation the more likely one is to have a
conversation with them. Family, dinner with friends, and even community meetings are
places people are willing to discuss the Snowden issue, where as social media sites are a
less likely place to spark a conversation. In addition, if other opinions are perceived as
similar then people are more likely to talk about Snowden then if others disagree.
Similarly, how interested one is in the issue, how strong one’s opinion is on the issue, and
how much one knows about the issue all positively correlate with more discussion about
Snowden. This research was a great example of the spiral of silence, which will be
discussed in more detail.
The spiral of silence is a theory about opinion formation of individuals in a
society and a woman named Noelle-Neumann developed it in the 1970’s. It is a dynamic
system with some assumptions about society and moving parts like time and growing
visibility on a new controversial topic.2 One assumption is that people have this special
sense that they are mostly aware of the opinions of the people in their lives and the
people around them. It isn’t an accurate perception but it isn’t the accuracy that is needed.
It is only the perceived notion that an individual thinks he knows the opinions of those
around him. In the long run one can tell who is the minority and who is the majority and
this is a key aspect of the spiral of silence.2 The next concept to add to the mix is the fear
of isolation. As social creatures humans don’t like to be judged or ostracized for their
actions or opinions and social norms dictate what is weird and what is acceptable.
Humans have an innate fear of disrupting that unspoken social conduct which is why
