When People Speak Out Opinions: Ego-Density, Network Centrality and Opinion Expression

Abstract

This study explored whether properties of a network an individual is affiliated with such as personal network density and network centrality influence willingness to express his or her true opinion on a possibly controversial issue in a face-to-face communication setting of the network. This study discovered that one’s higher personal network density of the friendship network in the group negatively affects the ego’s willingness to express the opinion. People were less willing to speak up their opinion if their friendship ego-network density was high. However, one’s network centrality that evaluates how central the person is in the group did not have a statistically significant association with opinion expression.

Keywords: Opinion expression, Spiral of Silence, Network density, Network centrality