Dialog across difference #29: Strike up the band! You herd me!

Social psychologists and political scientists have long researched and documented the varying rates that show the political opinion effects of the bandwagon effect, the spiral of silence, and other herding mechanisms (Farjam & Loxbo, 2024). 

The bandwagon effect is basically the tendency of relatively less informed and non-ideologically committed people to go along with majority opinion. 

The spiral of silence is the phenomenon of those with a minority opinion tending to avoid making that opinion public. 

While neither of these problematic conditions will necessarily alter political outcomes in the short term, they may contribute to increased polarization and to the media indexing that can effectively erase some minority opinions. 

For instance, few polls ask citizens if they wish that the federal government would prioritize education and health care for all over a larger and larger Pentagon budget. This may tend to make such questions increasingly marginalized, even as evidence mounts that other highly successful, prosperous, and egalitarian countries have done just that. 

Over time, then, the calls to cut Pentagon bloat and instead support universal health care and free public higher education are relegated to the outlying margins of public discourse. Fighting this tendency is a complex undertaking, one that will involve innovation, dedication, and long-term commitment. There is no one tactic that will achieve this, nor is there a plan, simple or complex, to do so. Arguably, there is no greater political task at hand. 

References

Farjam, M., & Loxbo, K. (2024). Social conformity or attitude persistence? The bandwagon effect and the spiral of silence in a polarized context. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, 34(3), 531–551. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1080/17457289.2023.2189730