“A lot of us think ... ”

1. The result of the spiral of silence is that few will publicly voice a minority opinion and will instead will nurse it in private.
2. The possibility of conflict makes us less likely to voice any opinion. If we want to know what people think, we need t...

Shame can be more troubling than guilt. It's hard for some people to separate their actions from who they are as a person. The downsides of shame:

• Decreases self-esteem - you tend to think that every negative action says something about who you are.
• Promotes unethical behavi...

Self-knowledge makes us understand how we impact others, allowing us to adjust ourselves, being more interested in the other person rather than just ourselves.

Strangers are surprisingly good at guessing stuff about us, though we find it difficult to grasp. We don’t realiz...