Opinion expressions under social sanctions

Abstract

I study a social debate where individuals are subject to informal sanctions if their expressions or silence signal the opinions of a minority group. Individual preferences are peaked at the expression of true opinions and there is a loss of utility from keeping silent. The model generates predictions about how equilibrium expressions change as a function of model primitives such as sanction intensity, disutility of silence and size of the minority group. A dynamic extension sheds light on the limit distribution of opinions if unvoiced opinions gradually disappear while publicly expressed opinions gain new adherents over time.