Opinion corridor

Opinion corridor (Swedish: åsiktskorridor, Norwegian: meningskorridor) refers to a sociopolitical phenomenon that has been observed during the beginning of the 21st century in Sweden, and to some extent also in Norway. The expression itself was originally used in 2013 by Henrik Oscarsson (), professor in political science at the University of Gothenburg, as a metaphor for the limits of what's commonly accepted to debate.

The concept is similar to the Overton window, which assumes a sliding scale of legitimate political conversation, and to Hallin's spheres, which assumes that the press implicitly groups issues into questions of wide consensus, legitimate controversy, and deviance. The Swedish Language Council has included the word åsiktskorridor in its 2014 list of neologisms.

In December 2013, political scientist Henrik Oscarsson () described how he perceived that the space for freedom of opinion had been tightened in Swedish debates. He provided some examples of opinions that were rarely expressed despite being common throughout the population:

Oscarsson concluded with calling for "a more moderate and respectful attitude from policy makers".

In February 2015, Expressen editor Ann-Charlotte Marteus () published an apology for being part of "constructing a corridor that prevented a constructive debate about migration and integration". She wrote that it was something that she started doing around 2002, when language tests were being debated and the Sweden Democrats started to become more influential. She was also afraid that Sweden's political climate would become more similar to that of Denmark.

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Wikipedia