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Trust among Americans is declining. Political polarization is leading to so much disdain that many people won’t befriend or live near those with opposing views.

In his research, James L. Gibson, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, finds that this distrust is worse than it was at the height of the McCarthy-era Red Scare. He describes how it causes a “spiral of silence,” a term coined by German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in the 1970s.

The spiral occurs when individuals who express a view on a controversial issue are met with vigorous criticism from an “aggressive minority.” As people begin to self-censor, they’re less likely to encounter support from those who may privately agree. They may also come to believe that they are in the minority when, in fact, they are part of the majority.

To Gibson, this dynamic distorts political debate: As more people hold back their views, it allows those of the aggressive minority to dominate.

“True public opinion and expressed public opinion diverge,” he writes, but above all, “the free-ranging debate so necessary to democratic politics is stifled.”

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