Blog Post #12

 Spiral of Silence 

    I thought that the spiral of silence was a very interesting theory to me, presented in class by Carly Zimmerman, because this theory was created by the public without the actual intent of making a theory. The spiral of silence is people’s willingness to express their opinions on controversial public issues is affected by their largely unconscious perception of those opinions as being either popular or unpopular. It was developed by a woman by the name of Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann in the 1960s-70s. The whole body of this theory is controlled by public opinion and is strictly a social psychology. Another part of this theory is that it doesn't matter who you are, or what your social class is because everyone has an opinion and everyone has biases towards specific topics, which is what makes them popular.

    This is a theory that represents people in society as sheep because we heard in groups and we tend to lean our opinions based off of others because we have a fear of being left out or isolated based off of our own opinions. It makes people refrain from sharing their own ideas and so the bigger influences basically control the public opinion. It also shows how people that feel that they are supported by the public and the people surrounding them then they are more likely to share their opinion. This theory has no government laws attached to it and the fact that the public alone made this unheard theory was very interesting to me.