우리가 침묵하는 이유 : 소셜미디어 여론에서 나타나는 침묵의 종류와 사회심리적 영향요인 연구

초록

The spiral of silence phenomenon has often been attributed to the effects of mass media. The emergence of networked environments, such as social media, however, makes the spiraling dynamics far more complex and unpredictable than before. While being silent was previously taken as a sign of compliance resulting from the fear of social isolation, social media users may feel reluctant to speak out or may intentionally choose to remain silent for various reasons and purposes. Particularly in social media, individuals may not want to express their opinions for different reasons, such as lurking (i.e., read messages and others’ post, but seldom write themselves) or as an implicit expression of disagreement. This suggests that silence may not be attributed to a single psychological motive or reason, but arises from a mixture of motivational and situational influences in the social media environment. The aim of this study is to re-illuminate the concept of silence as a conscious choice that individuals make in a given situation, by examining the factors that influence three different types of silence—namely acquiescent, defensive, and prosocial silence—in the context of public opinion processes in social media. An online survey was administered to selected Facebook users and a MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) was carried out to analyze the data obtained. First, the degrees of acquiescent and defensive silence in the social media environment were found to increase when the level of communication apprehension was higher, while the degree of prosocial silence varied depending on the interaction between communication apprehension and perceived opinion climate. When communication apprehension was lower, the degree of prosocial silence turned out higher among people in the majority. When communication apprehension was higher, on the contrary, prosocial silence went up among those in the minority. Similar patterns were also found in relation to self-control—the degree of prosocial silence went up when people with higher self-control were in the minority and those with lower self-control in the majority. Likewise, group identity was found to moderate the effects of perceived opinion climates on the degree of defensive silence. Overall, the results show that there exist different types of silence with various underlying reasons, which are in conjunction with diverse socio-psychological, situational, and contextual factors related to public opinion processes. The presence of different types of silence can make the unfolding of public opinion more dynamic and unpredictable, which requires a systematic attempt to identify them.

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