Stimulating the Quasi-Statistical Organ: Fear of Social Isolation Motivates the Quest for Knowledge of the Opinion Climate.

Autor(en)

Andrew F. Hayes, Jörg Matthes, Wiliam P. Eveland

Abstrakt

We test an uninvestigated proposition from spiral of silence theory that fear of social isolation (FSI) prompts people to seek out information about the climate of public opinion. Taking a trait-based individual difference perspective, the authors develop and validate a measure of FSI that is less likely to produce the interpretational problems that plague existing measures. Then, using data from eight countries spread across four continents, the authors examine whether those who fear social isolation to a greater extent are more likely to attend to a particular source of information in the social environment about public opinion—mass media reports of public opinion polls. Study results support spiral of silence theory’s prediction—FSI does appear to motivate people to ascertain what the public thinks. However, there may be some cultural boundaries to this process.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

Ohio State University

Journal

Communication Research (CR)

Band

40

Seiten

439 - 462

Anzahl der Seiten

24

ISSN

0093-6502

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650211428608

Publikationsdatum

2013

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

508014 Publizistik

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/stimulating-the-quasistatistical-organ-fear-of-social-isolation-motivates-the-quest-for-knowledge-of-the-opinion-climate(54f1712c-b4a5-4ae9-a6f7-8c43afeb8e08).html