Have you ever thought about how many social activists it would take to change the world? And no, this is not a trick a question, it’s a real question that none of us really knew what the answer was, until now.
Throughout history, there’s been no shortage of changes in society’s views. However, we’ve never really noticed or found a specific moment or amount of people that could be considered as a tipping point to make that change actually come into place.
According to a recent study done by researchers at the University of London and the University of Pennsylvania, 25 percent is the most likely number to make social change happen.
They conducted an online study, placing 194 people into 10 different groups with around 20 to 30 people in each group. They had the members of each group chose a name for an object in a picture (such as a face for example). They entered their voices through a voice chat program.
If both people were to put the same name within a specific amount of time, then they were rewarded. If not, then they were penalized. After each round, the people were given new partners in their groups with the same goal. It did not take very long for all the members of the group to agree on one name.
The researchers however then added people to each group who strongly wanted to change the set name to something else. Since these additional people were at least 25 percent of the group, they managed to get the group to take on the new name they desired. In a few cases, adding just one person to the minority group changed the entire outcome, and served as the tipping point.
In other more serious situations of course there are tons of outside factors and variables that can change the success of the minority, however it should still be rather encouraging to know that a mere 25 percent of a group can make an impact in social change.