German public opinion scholar Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann (1916-2010) grew up in easy circumstances, then got a hard lesson.  Her family had money and gave her a first-rate education.  That education included a year spent on study-abroad at the University of Missouri (1937-1938), where she studied American media and journalism.  George Gallup’s opinion-polling methods particularly interested her.  So did Walter Lippman’s book Public Opinion (1922).  Returning to Germany, she got her Ph.D. in 1940. 

            In 1946, she married a Christian-Democrat politician, Erich Neumann (1912-1973).  Together, they founded post-war Germany’s first public opinion research organization in 1947.  She rose to great prominence in her field, teaching at a German university (1964-1983), serving as president of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, and holding a visiting appointment at the University of Chicago (1978-1991).  In 1990-1991, the question of how anti-Semitic, how pro-Nazi or anti-Nazi, she had been, came out in the open at Chicago.  Political Science professor John Mearsheimer, nobody’s idea of a marshmallow, found her answers unpersuasive.  Some student protests followed.  Her invitation to teach was not renewed. 

            Her chief scholarly contribution came in an idea called “the Spiral of Silence.”[1]  Noelle-Neumann argued that “not isolating himself is more important [to an individual] than his own judgement”, meaning his perception of how others in the group perceive him is more important to himself than the need for his opinion to be heard.”[2]  That is, nobody wants to be in the minority, so if one set of beliefs appears to be dominant, then people will adjust their own opinions, either by following the crowd or just keeping silent.  Being noisy and grabbing attention can define the perception of which opinion is dominant. 

            This insight lies at the heart of the debate over “cancel culture.”  Back in the day some eminent speakers who had been invited to speak at colleges and universities encountered resistance from students who held a different intellectual perspective on various issues.  Demonstrations, protests, and petitions demanded that the invitation to speak be cancelled.  Often, colleges and universities caved-in to these demands.[3]  Hence, the origin of the term “cancel culture”: if you don’t like what somebody has to say, then silence and shame them. 

Here are a few examples.  In Spring 2014, it was announced that former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would give the commencement address at Rutgers University.  Weeks of protest by some students and faculty followed.  In early May 2014, Rice withdrew.  During Spring 2016, at least seven speakers withdrew from invited appearances after protests at various colleges or were shouted down.[4]  In March 2017, the conservative scholar Charles Murray tried to speak at Middlebury College.  Protests disrupted the talk, which was moved to a more secure venue.  Then Murray and his college hosts had a hard time leaving the campus, with one professor receiving a concussion. 

The recent and current intimidation and censorship generally comes from the left.  However, as every political science professor knows, Noelle-Neumann’s “Spiral of Silence” is rooted in her own experience of conformity in Nazi Germany.  It just doesn’t stop there. 

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[1] Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, “The spiral of silence: a theory of public opinion,” Journal of Communication, vol. 24 (2): 43–51. 

[2] Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, “Turbulences in the climate of opinion: Methodological applications of the spiral of silence theory”, Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 41 (2): 143–158. 

[3] See: “Wine-sod! Dog-eyes! You have the heart of a deer!” Iliad 1.224–226. 

[4] List of Disinvited Speakers at Colleges (businessinsider.com)