Spiral of Silence
Spiral of Silence: this theory that was first proposed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann from the mid 1970s attempts to describe how public opinion is shaped regarding widespread sentiment. It was first proposed as an explanation for the German peoples’ widespread support of the Nazi party in the 1930s and ‘40s; it proposes that individuals tend to remain quiet when they believe that they exhibit the minority opinion regarding an issue, and that it can explain why people often follow the majority opinion even when it seems to be obviously wrong. It can be thought of as a lemming or bandwagon effect as well (cw.utwente.nl).
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