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The Spiral of silence in the post-Brexit era

Publication at Faculty of Humanities |
2023

Abstract

According to the spiral of silence theory, a person's opinions are influenced by what that particular person assumes other people think. The concept of the spiral of silence was expressed by the German sociologist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann as people's fear of being isolated with their minority views. Therefore, people are constantly monitoring their surroundings and evaluating which opinion is minority and which is majority. If people have a majority opinion, they are unashamed to express it in public, but with a minority opinion it is not so easy.

After the referendum, and especially after Brexit in January 2020, the spiral of silence has been demonstrated by Leave voters. The abstract submitter's research involved in-depth interviews with people who voted in the referendum. This included both people voting for Remain and Leave voters. In doing so, the Remain voters interviewed had no problem giving an interview on the subject of Brexit.