The practice may be motivated by positive interest in group solidarity or by negative impulses such as fear of political repercussion or social ostracism.
Unlike a taboo subject or the use of euphemisms, a conspiracy of silence is limited to specific social and political contexts rather than to an entire culture.
Compare the Streisand effect, where deliberate efforts to suppress a particular topic or information result instead in increased awareness of the subject.
Examples of the use of the term vary widely and include: The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary.
Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news—things which on their own merits would get the big headlines—being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that "it wouldn't do" to mention that particular fact. ...