Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

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Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (born December 19, 1916) is a German political scientist. Her most famous contribution is the model of the spiral of silence, detailed in The Spiral of Silence : Public Opinion - Our Social Skin. The model is an explanation of how perceived public opinion can influence individual opinions or actions.

She earned her Abitur in 1935 in Göttingen and then studied philosophy, history, journalism, and American studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, the Königsberg Albertina University, and the University of Missouri-Columbia. She stayed in the USA from 1937 to 1938. In 1940 she received her Phd concentrating on public opinion research in the USA.

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann was the president of the World Association for Public Opinion Research from 1978 to 1980 and worked as a guest professor at the University of Chicago from 1978 to 1991.