Five Common Barriers to Speaking Up

Friday, September 25, 2015

Five common barriers to speaking up are:

• Social Influence- You don’t see anyone doing anything about it, so you don’t intervene. The thought that if no one else is doing anything about it, it must not be a big deal.
• Fear of Embarrassment- This is based on the reactions you believe you will get from intervening. A fear of embarrassing yourself or others because it’s not the cool or popular thing to do.
• Diffusion of Responsibility- You assume, or hope, someone else will do
• Fear of Retaliation- This includes the fear of lack of support from peers, superiors or ot
• Pluralistic Ignorance- You perceive that you are the only one that views this as a problem when in reality, most people privately feel the same way you do.