Small Group = Change
The other day I posted a video of a 12 year old dropping some serious knowledge about how The Man is hosing us with an economic/banking/big-business system that is clearly broken. The video is well worth the 6 minutes it takes for Ms. Grant to break it down to terms even a 12 year old can understand.
The end of the video closed with a vote by Margaret Mead…
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
And now there seems to be evidence that Ms. Mead is right on. A recent study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrates that the tipping point for spread of ideas is 10%.
10%! That’s amazing. We can change the world with a 10% consensus. Think about that.
Now, the Dude’s padre is a statistics professor who continually reminds anyone who will listen that many studies are not performed well, and the results are questionable. So, we should take this study with a grain of salt, but it’s interesting none-the-less. And if it is even remotely accurate, there are far-reaching implications for the ability to make significant changes to the world we live in. By the way, RPI is a pretty reputable school.
Here are a couple impressive quotes from the researchers/studies:
- “When just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.”
- One of the researchers observed, “When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority. Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.”
Thanks to Tom Woods for sharing.
