Social Change in Mass Opinion: Its Origins, Dynamics, and How to Accelerate It
By: Jeremiah J. Garretson
• Media and culture matter. Social
connections matter. The book demonstrates
that social change in mass opinion is driven
by interpersonal persuasion from those in
close contact with people whose lives are
affected by these issues.
• LGBTQ rights, drugs, guns, and
immigration, feel a deep stigma sharing
those aspects of their lives with others.
• The public is open to persuasion on these
issues from friends and family members
because of these social connections, but
the stigma associated with these issues
prevent them from advocating for
themselves.
• As news and political media start to cover
seemingly random events, like the election
of a president who endorses LGBTQ rights
or admits to past felony marijuana use, the
political status quo on the issue becomes
disrupted and the possibility of change
triggered. Those who care about the issue
begin to feel emboldened and taken to the
mass media.
Example: For example, in 2008, the
election of Barack Obama emboldened both
those who supported liberalization of
cannabis laws
and those opposed to measures restricting
the use of firearms initiating social change
on these
issues.
• When attitudes on political issues do
change, it is largely due to an intense focus
within news and political media on the issue
in response to a current event or other
political or scientific development (Page,
Shapiro, and Dempsey 1989).
Chapter 1: Social Change in Mass
Opinion: Commonalities, Patterns, and
Puzzles
• The reality of these changes is contrasted
with the lack of change in politics and on
attitudes directly relating to the ongoing
conflict between Democrats and
Republicans: beliefs in the size and scope
of government, economic policy, and
spending on social programs like social
security and Medicare
• Individuals learn about cultural issues not
only from the news and politics, but also
from mass culture such as entertainment
media.
• Only individuals who follow politics are
susceptible to change on political issues,
but on cultural issues---LGBTQ rights,
marijuana, guns, immigration---citizens can
learn about new considerations on these
from mass culture---and from those in their
social network who care about these issues
if those individuals are willing to share their
experiences.
Chapter 2: A Unified Theory of Social
Change in Mass Opinion
• The chapter opens with a discussion of
what we know about issue-based public
opinion with an emphasis on the sources of
considerations that change people’s
opinions on these issues: the news; various
other forms of media; personal experiences;
and interpersonal influence.
• The core of builds on the notion of a ‘Spiral
of Silence (SOS)’
• According to SOS theory, as people learn
their opinions are unpopular, they begin to
fear that expressing them will lead to social
isolation or legal action. However, when
people with one specific position on an
issue (liberal or conservative) do this en
masse (in a group), the larger public is less
Social Change in Mass Opinion: Its Origins, Dynamics, and How to Accelerate It
By: Jeremiah J. Garretson
likely to be exposed to arguments in favor of bells about the dangers of restrictions on
that side’s views. Collective opinion shifts firearm sales after Obama was elected.
against the preferences of this ‘silenced’
Chapter 3: The Cultural is Political: The
group in SOS theory.
Role of Social Movements, Political
• Theoretically, younger people should be
Change, and ‘Cultural Moments’
more responsive to this interpersonal
• Outlines the history of the four major cases
influence, as they both fear social isolation
under study here: LGBTQ rights, marijuana
more than older individuals and have less
legalization, gun control, and immigration.
firm preferences on cultural and social
• On LGBTQ rights, mass preference
issues.
change appears to have been triggered by
• Thus, the reversal of a SOS affects
the rise of the AIDS crisis. LGBTQ activism
younger people’s attitudes much earlier in
increased in the late 1980s with the goal of
the process of social change than older
drawing attention to government inaction on
folks. This explains one of the most
AIDS.
prominent and least understood features of
• Clinton’s campaign endorsed LGBTQ
social change, the emergence of age-based
rights, largely to appeal to a politically savvy
gaps in opinions.
and active LGBTQ community. ( issues
• A shift in tone on cultural issues, because
were discussed to be much more supportive
it is transmitted both by political and
of homosexuality).
entertainment media, thus reaches a much
• On gun control, Obama’s election was also
larger audience than similar changes in tone
important because it increased
on political issues. I theorize that, while this
concern---and even fear---among gun
change in tone transmitted by media has
enthusiasts that firearms sales would soon
some direct effects on public opinion, its
be restricted, and legally obtained arms
more profound effect is through the
confiscated.
stigmatization of viewpoints of those who
• Political developments are also shown to
had previously feared expressing their
have upset the status quo on the
views.
immigration issue with the creation of the
• On political issues, only those highly active
Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals
in politics see the shift in tone. On cultural
(DACA) program during the Obama
issues, while the shift in tone may originate
Administration.
in politics, it quickly cascades into other
• Politicians, seeking to please constituents
types of media also---most prominently
active in politics on these issues have an
entertainment and fictional media.
incentive to adopt the positions of these
• Depictions of LGBTQ people and
constituents, rather than those of most
sympathetic portrayals of marijuana users voters, because politically active
were normalized after the elections of Bill constituents contribute to reelection
Clinton and Barack Obama. These campaigns (Bishin 2010). This support
reshuffles the status quo on these issues,
candidates shifted the tone on these issues
allowing for the possibility of wider scale
toward more liberal perspectives. I find a social changes.
similar process unfolded in right wing media
also. Internet media began to raise alarm
Social Change in Mass Opinion: Its Origins, Dynamics, and How to Accelerate It
By: Jeremiah J. Garretson
Chapter 4: Televised (and Untelevised)
Revolutions.
• In this chapter, shows that shifts in tone on
cultural issues tend to metastasize. They
expand quickly to other forms of media.
Specifically, media attention to cultural
issues shifts to entertainment television, soft
news, and other subcultural media like
various communities on the Internet.
• Cultural issues using various forms of
trend data. For instance, immediately after
the political events on LGBTQ rights
described in the last chapter, representation
of LGBTQ people in entertainment
programming proliferated.
• On gun control, firearms sales exploded
from 2009 to 2012 and the NRA started
their own media channel.
and whose lives are affected by them the
most.
• Furthermore, because young
people---whose preferences shift
first---gradually to replace older people in
the public, inter-cohort replacement means
that shifts in collective preferences can
continue decades after the process has
begun.
• These effects all contributed to large shifts
in collective preferences, but the evidence
in this chapter suggests that all the most
distinct features of social change are
caused by the destigmatizing effects of
cultural shifts and increased interpersonal
exposure to those whose lives are affected
by these issues.

Chapter 5: Just Between Us (and the

World): Entertainment Media,
Destigmatization, and Interpersonal
Influence
• Shows that close interpersonal contact
(friends, family, etc..) with those who care
about these issues---LGBTQ people,
marijuana users, gun owners, and
undocumented immigrants---results in
attitude change in a consistent fashion
regardless of issue.
• These individuals tended to conceal their
identities and preferences before the
cultural moment, but as political change
cascaded into cultural change on each,
these individuals all found their positions
destigmatized. Social change in mass
opinion followed.
• Shows that reported interpersonal
connections with these groups has a much
larger effect for younger people in every
instance. What makes younger people
‘more impressionable’ on cultural issues:
interpersonal influence with friends, family,
and others that care about those issues,