Running head: EMERGENCE OF SPIRAL OF SILENCE

The purpose of this exploratory study is threefold: first, to analytically explore the boundary conditions of the robust existence of spiral of silence; second, to gauge how social interactions influence the formation of spiral of silence; third, to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the process in the aspect of size-dependent and time heterogeneity. By proposing an agent-based model of spiral of silence, the findings suggest: first, stable existence of spiral of silence is contingent upon the comparative strength of mass media over reference groups; second, heterogeneous individuals‟ bottom-up interactions with mass media and reference groups at the local scope give rise to the spiral of silence as an emergence of macroscopic regularity, to be specific, the growth rate of spiral of silence decreases over time, the number of the people falling silent per time is in accordance with Pareto distribution.