The Cognitive-Mediation Model and the Spiral of Silence Theory: Testing Opinion Expression about the Issues of Women’s Freedoms and Dual-Nationality in Kuwait

The cognitive mediation model (CMM) explains the cognitive internalization of information that causes learning from media. The current study adopts CMM to predict opinion expression, the primary behavioral output that the spiral of silence (SOS) theory explores. This study proposes a model that starts with the two components of SOS (fear of social isolation (FSI) and opinion congruency), which stimulate seeking out media news (surveillance motive). People pay attention to media news about an issue, cognitively elaborate it, and discuss it with others. These activities influence individuals to learn about the issue (learning is operationally defined by perceived familiarity, structural knowledge, and procedural knowledge). This issue’s knowledge influences individuals in their decision whether to speak out or not based on their perception of information instrumentality (the perceived usefulness of information to express an opinion in a given situation) and the ability to counter-argue. To test the model, this study employs two issues (dual-nationality and women’s freedoms) using two separate network samples of individuals (N = 1050 and N = 1289) responding to two questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that FSI and congruence predicted a surveillance motive. Elaboration predicted structural and procedural knowledge, while attention and interpersonal discussions predicted perceived familiarity. Structural knowledge predicted counter-arguing, and perceived familiarity predicted information instrumentality. Procedural knowledge was a moderate predictor of instrumentality and counter-argument. Finally, instrumentality was a stronger predictor than counter-arguing of opinion expression. We discuss these results and relate them to model validation, implications, a future research agenda, and limitations.