• Individuals have a strong need to be accepted by the group of which they want to be part, and strongly fear isolation over expressing a point of view that is not aligned with the (perceived) dominant opinion. That is why most people are opinion followers, instead of opinion leaders.
• People who consider their opinion to be part of the dominant logic in society tend to express it loud and clearly, while people who consider their personal view as a minority point of view have a tendency to stay silent.
• Choosing to be part of the silent majority is driven by individual characteristics – the fear of isolation – combined with group pressure, resulting from repeated messaging by the media and peer groups stressing the same dominant opinions while avoiding the minority views.
• This mixture of personal and group characteristics results in the “bandwagon effect” and the spiral of silence mechanism that reduces public discussions of minority topics; as the majority point of view gets more attention, the number of its supporters increases.
• Dominance in public opinion, however, is never forever. If an opponent group is excluded from public debate over a period of time, they will strengthen and sharpen their opinions, and their repression will be eventually followed by a larger degree of popularity, due to the underdog effect. If they persevere, their vision might become the new dominant public opinion. After that, the opinion formation and control process described here repeats again.