The Spiral of Silence

The PX90 summer book club is reading "Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus" by Sherry Weddell.  We are only through the first few chapters so far but I have found the book and material to be intriguing.  One of the concepts Sherry introduced to me is the Spiral of Silence.  As Sherry puts it, 
  
"The Spiral of Silence is a well-known communication theory originally proposed by political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. In her research, Noelle-Neumann found that people are less likely to voice an opinion on a topic if they believe they are in the minority, because most people fear isolation from the majority. One of the crucial points of the Spiral of Silence theory is that people are constantly observing the behaviors of those around them, to see which behaviors gain approval and which receive disapproval from the majority."

If you are a visual person, maybe the illustration below will help.  In it we see that both the mass media and interpersonal interactions play a large role in the spiral behavior.

 

 In "Forming Intentional Disciples" the author sees this phenomena as one of the major factors explaining why in our society today talking about one's faith is considered by many  - even those who profess to be people of faith and attend mass regularly -to be taboo.  I agree with her, and have experienced this feeling myself many times when I have failed to bring faith into a conversation stemming from the fear of the opinions of others.    

Unless you are living under a rock, with no TV or internet access and have no friends or children, you are being confronted daily with opinions, opportunities and situations where the truths of the Catholic faith are being called into question and in many cases outright attacked.  This blog has highlighted a few of these everyday situations, like here and here.  The Spiral of Silence is in effect at these times, as we mentally - and most likely sub-consciously - weigh our options in how to respond.

My prayer today is that God provides us the grace to bring our response out of the subconscious and to provide the strength and courage to break the silence...