Elephant in the Room: the function of silence
An elephant in the room connects several people – even people who are at odds. Several parties involved or those in the know agree to remain silent. This does not have any advantages in the long term – but it saves you from unpleasant arguments for the moment.
“We agree that we don’t talk about it”
Hiding the problem prevents a solution, so it saves (supposedly) resources at the moment.
- What is concealed cannot be edited.
- Hiding a problem can create a sense of connectedness: “We all know what’s going on here, but we stick together.”
- An elephant in the room can make the lack of a solution a little more bearable
- The phenomenon of the elephant in the room can have a pain-preventing function
Summary of the function of Elephant in the Room:
Common ground can also be shown in mutual silence.
Avoiding the discussion of a concealed, smoldering conflict can therefore definitely be viewed as a kind of minimum consensus.
This explains why so many unspoken problems and conflicts linger on for so long
