Proposed by Neumann (1974), It is refers to how people tend to remain silent when they feel that their views are in the minority. The model is based on three premises:
people have a "quasi-statistical organ," a sixth-sense if you will, which allows them to know the prevailing public opinion,
people have a fear of isolation and know what behaviors will increase their likelihood of being socially isolated,
people are reticent to express their minority views, primarily out of fear of being isolated.
As a consequence, people who don’t have dominant opinions, tend to refrain to voice them and prefer to stay quiet, because:
they may feel unsupported by the other employees,
fear of isolation (like transfer),
fear of rejection (by rejecting their personal opinion from the public will help to avoid fight),
they may try to save their job by suppressing or avoid personal statement in public.
Internet is usually perceived as a breeding grounds for idea exchange. But there’s something deeper happening in the social media networks that goes against what many of us may perceive. What they’re calling a “spiral of silence: sites like Facebook and Twitter are often being avoided as outlets of discussion for political and controversial issues, for fear that followers will disagree with the poster’s views.
While there is a diversity of opinions online, people are more attracted to those perspectives they agree most with (Mutz and Martin, 2001 and Stroud, 2008). In other words, while people have considerable choices over what sites to visit, they are more likely to visit sites that support their points of view.
In the online setting, people in the minority group sometimes express personal opinion more boldly than those within the majority groups (McDevitt et al., 2003). Thus, the increased confidence gained online might help decrease communication apprehension, and eventually increase the likelihood of individuals speaking out in public. When an individual gets more exposure to online opinions and increasingly express opinions online, speaking out might eventually become a habit.
