Compare methods

	Spiral of Silence Survey	Third-Person Effect Survey
Field	Communication	Communication
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1974	1983
Originator	Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann	W. Phillips Davison
Type	Survey approach to opinion expression under perceived social pressure	Survey approach to perceived differential media influence on self versus others
Seminal source	Noelle-Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication, 24(2), 43–51.	Davison, W. P. (1983). The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47(1), 1–15.
Aliases	Spiral of silence measurement, Willingness to self-censor survey, Opinion climate survey, Suskunluk Sarmalı Anketi	Third-person perception survey, TPE measurement, Perceived media influence survey, Üçüncü Kişi Etkisi Anketi
Related	4	4
Summary	The spiral of silence survey operationalizes Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's 1974 theory that people who perceive their opinion to be in the minority grow reluctant to express it for fear of social isolation, which makes the apparent majority seem ever stronger — a self-reinforcing spiral. The method measures individuals' own opinions, their perception of the opinion climate, their fear of isolation, and their willingness to speak out, then models how these combine.	The third-person effect survey measures W. Phillips Davison's 1983 observation that people tend to believe persuasive media messages affect other people more than themselves. The perceptual component documents this self–other gap, while the behavioral component tests whether the gap leads people to support censorship, corrective action, or other responses aimed at protecting the supposedly more-influenced others.