ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a summary of research on the theory known as the "spiral of silence." It includes a discussion of the results of a meta-analysis we conducted (Glynn, Hayes, & Shanahan, 1997), along with a summary of results that have accumulated since that time. The spiral of silence is a theoretical contribution developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1984,1993) to explain aspects of public opinion that, in her opinion, had been underexamined. According to NoelleNeumann, it was important to emphasize that public opinion should be considered in terms of how people view others around them (public opinion as social control) as well as how individuals actually feel about the issues (public opinion as raisonnement). Many public opinion studies had essentially cumulated people's individual views about certain issues to arrive at conclusions about the whole, emphasizing the rational/individual aspect of public opinion. Noelle-Neumann felt it was equally important to study how people make judgments about the opinions of those around them, as well as to determine how these judgments affect the likelihood of people expressing their own opinions on issues.
