Perceptions of Opinion "Climates" and Willingness to Discuss the Issue of Abortion

In: Journalism quarterly, Band 67, Heft 3, S. 567-577

Abstract

This 1986 survey of 432 Madison, Wisconsin, residents describes an elaborated version of Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's model of the "spiral of silence." Consistent with her hypotheses, persons whose opinions were congruent with those of the national majority were more willing to speak to a stranger than were those whose opinions were shared only by a minority; however, the same result was not obtained for either a different mode of expression or system level. Factors such as involvement and knowledge were found to directly influence opinion expression, whereas education and gender were found to be indirectly related to expression.