Fear of Isolation: Conformity Drives The Spiral
Noelle-Neumann asserts that the fear of being in isolation is what initiates the spiral. People have a tendency to conform as demonstrated by psychologist Solomon Asch in which he passed out sheets of paper that contained 4 lines. The lines were labeled A, B, C and X. The question was to choose which line was the same length as X. If an entire room of individuals answered that line B was correct, but you thought line A was correct, would you stick up for your opinion? Or would you conform to the rest of the room's opinion? It turns out, one individual would receive a different sheet of paper than the rest of the class in which the answer wouldn't coincide. The study showed that the majority of the time, the individual with the oddball paper would conform to the idea of the rest of the class. This person feared being isolated from the majority, and therefore, silenced their own opinion and decided to go with the flow. Not only is this the theory in a nut-shell, but it clearly shows what causes the theories correctness.
Read more about this topic: Spiral Of Silence
Famous quotes containing the words fear of, fear, conformity, drives and/or spiral:
“I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him. You have no business with consequences; you are to tell the truth.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“As if paralyzed by the national fear of ideas, the democratic distrust of whatever strikes beneath the prevailing platitudes, it evades all resolute and honest dealing with what, after all, must be every healthy literature’s elementary materials.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“That man is a creature who needs order yet yearns for change is the creative contradiction at the heart of the laws which structure his conformity and define his deviancy.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“He turns agen and drives the noisy crowd
And beats the dogs in noises loud.
He drives away and beats them every one,
And then they loose them all and set them on.
He falls as dead and kicked by boys and men,
Then starts and grins and drives the crowd agen;
Till kicked and torn and beaten out he lies
And leaves his hold and cackles, groans, and dies.”
—John Clare (1793–1864)
“The spiral is a spiritualized circle. In the spiral form, the circle, uncoiled, unwound, has ceased to be vicious; it has been set free.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)