The Spiral of Silence theory developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann proposes that people's willingness to express their opinions publicly depends on their perceptions of what others think. If people feel their views are not shared by the majority, they will remain silent for fear of isolation. Over time, this causes the majority opinion to become increasingly dominant as the minority opinion spirals down into further silence. The theory suggests people learn about majority opinions through mass media exposure, making them vulnerable to the spiral of silence effect unless they have extremely strong convictions.

1. Spiral of
Silence
Theory

2. Objectives:
• To understand the meaning of the Spiral
of silence theory.
• To know the difference of being in the
majority or minority opinion.
• The effect the

3. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
who formulated the theory in Germany in 1974

4. Definition
• Introduced in 1974, observations
made in one context (the mass
media) spread to another and
encouraged people either to proclaim
their views or to swallow them and
keep quiet until, in a spiraling
process, the one view dominated the
public scene and the other
disappeared from the public
awareness as its adherents became
mute.

5. if a person thinks
their opinion is not
shared by the
majority they will
most likely either…

6. Express the
opinion they
think the
majority
DOES hold

7. Remain Silent.

10. But how do
people
know what
the
“majority
opinion” is?

12. We are all exposed to
the mass media in at
least one way or another

14. Therefore, we are all at risk of…
the spiral of silence effect.

15. Unless, of course,
you are a
HARDCORE:
*Presenter's Choice…

16. Strong enough to DEFEAT the
spiral of silence effect!

18. CONCLUSION