A MAJORITY OF 10%

Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas
July 25, 2011 (Science Blog)

"Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society…The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals…

"An important aspect of the finding is that the percent of committed opinion holders required to shift majority opinion does not change significantly regardless of the type of network in which the opinion holders are working. In other words, the percentage of committed opinion holders required to influence a society remains at approximately 10 percent, regardless of how or where that opinion starts and spreads in the society."

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"Once the networks were built, the scientists then ‘sprinkled’ in some true believers throughout each of the networks. These people were completely set in their views and unflappable in modifying those beliefs. As those true believers began to converse with those who held the traditional belief system, the tides gradually and then very abruptly began to shift…

"The research has broad implications for understanding how opinion spreads…The researchers are now looking for partners within the social sciences and other fields to compare their computational models to historical examples…[and] study how the percentage might change when…the society would instead hold two opposing viewpoints…[such as] Democrat versus Republican…"