Resurrecting Spiral of Silence Theory

For this first morning of ECREA 2022 proper, I’m starting with a session that explores the idea of the Spiral of Silence, and we start with a paper by Christiane Eilders. She begins by noting the importance of public opinion expression as a prerequisite to the public deliberation. Spiral of Silence theory then asks under what conditions people fall silent and refrain from expressing their opinions, and how that affects public opinion; the point here is not actually silence, though, but the expression of other opinions that lead people to believe that their own views will be unpopular.

So what can be done to advance Spiral of Silence research again? How and why do people express their opinions in public, or how and why don’t they? In other words, what are the motives? This might help to develop a better theoretical basis for future studies, and also requires the integration of a broader range of research strands: for instance, political participation and connective communication, deliberation, opinion leadership, and collective action.

This may be distinguished between online and offline contexts, and further between verbal and non-verbal forms of communication (the latter includes other forms of online engagement such as liking or sharing content, for instance). Forms of silence in this context should also be distinguished: these may include avoidance (saying nothing) and denial (leaving the situation) strategies, for instance, and again there are various motives for such silence (such as cognitive, affective, environment-related, self image-related, and moral). Motives for such silence might thus include low internal or external self-efficacy (cognitive), increasing or relaxing tension (affective), fear of social isolation (environment-related), confirmation of self-image (self-image), or defence of the personal value system (moral).