The spiral of silence : examining how cultural predispositions, news attention, and opinion congruency relate to opinion expression

This study examines new explanatory predictors behind the spiral of silence theory, using the issue of legalization of same-sex marriage in Singapore as the context of study. Our results show that fear of isolation and saving face were negatively associated with individuals' willingness to expr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ho, Shirley S., Sim, Clarice C., Chen, Vivian Hsueh-Hua
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/98702
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/17416
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:This study examines new explanatory predictors behind the spiral of silence theory, using the issue of legalization of same-sex marriage in Singapore as the context of study. Our results show that fear of isolation and saving face were negatively associated with individuals' willingness to express their opinion on the issue, whereas news attention and issue salience were positively associated. Also, fear of isolation was negatively associated with individuals' willingness to offer a rationale for their opinion, whereas news attention and issue salience were positively associated. Power distance had no effects on outspokenness. Notably, news attention moderated the influence of fear of isolation and saving face on public outspokenness.