EOTO #2 Spiral of silence

The Spiral of silence theory suggests that people naturally hold back opinions to protect themselves socially. The more unpopular the idea or opinion the more likely it is to be self-censored.  

This theory was first coined in 1965 when a group of German researchers along with Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann looked into the political views of German citizens. The election at the time was split between two parties. The researchers thought the votes would be fairly even. The final results showed otherwise with one party winning a much larger margin.

It's only natural for people to want to fit in and with political opinions having such a large factor in what groups a person will fit into, hiding or altering a political opinion to fit in is the most common form we see the spiral of silence manifest as. This theory does not just go for politics. The spiral of silence can apply to any topic or concept. Pineapple on pizza, the smell of gasoline, "Is water wet?", etc. People will alter their public opinions on even the smallest topics just to protect the way others view them. 

Before the age of social media, a person would only have to worry about the people they interact with and the community they are a part of, if they're a celebrity or public figure of some kind they'd have to worry about what was previously mentioned and what was broadcasted about them. Now in the age of social media, every single person is given a platform where anyone can become famous or infamous in minutes.

With the curation algorithms of modern social media, it become incredibly easy for young people to be put down a pipeline to lead to a far-leaning political view. All a person can see on social media is a biased political commentary that drip-feeds beliefs into the user. It becomes increasingly difficult to know what is the "mainstream opinion". With the isolation that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic with access to the public being limited social media was many people's primary source of news and entertainment and the rising divide between the two major political parties in the US. A centrist view was not only rare but frowned upon in American politics.

This video by 60 minutes is very interesting although it doesn't directly mention the spiral of silence it does bring up its core properties. In the video it mentions that the centrist take up the majority of the population but because of the publications made by both the far right and far left.

The spiral of silence is a truly fascinating concept and hasn't gone away since its discovery. However, it has changed quite a lot in the past 10 years as we've seen with the polarization of the political parties in the US. Depending on legislation and changes in culture the spiral of silence will continue to spiral. Although breaking the spiral is possible it is important to note the consequences of speaking up against the "status quo".