How do ideas spread? From the minority to the majority

Beliefs and ideas that were once considered aberrant are today quite normal. How does this happen?

Throughout history, we have seen how the prevailing ideology in different cultures, societies and eras has varied enormously. However, we know that most people have beliefs that tend to be in line with those of the majority. The great ideological changes have been driven by ideas that have emerged from a few people and over time have been accepted by many other fellow citizens.

Although initially great discoveries and breakthroughs were viewed with fear or even disgust, in the end many of them have achieved social acceptance and have become the norm. Examples of this can be found in the belief in the equality of races, creeds, sexes and sexual orientations, or the consideration that the Earth was round and that it was not the center of the Universe. These changes are due to the fact that someone thought and defended ideas that were not shared by the majority until they finally spread through the population. We are talking about the expansion of ideas.

What does an idea need to spread?

The spread of ideas that start out as being held by very few people and eventually become mainstream thinking is largely linked to the spread of ideas. is largely linked to the influence of minorities.

Generally, the majority of the population tends to seek and maintain criteria and beliefs in line with what society and the community tends to dictate. Ascription to these beliefs is relatively simple, taking into account that the environment and the sense of belonging make it easier for the majority ideas to be absorbed by the population.

But innovative ideas do not have such an easy time gaining ground, especially when there is already a pre-existing view of the same topic.especially when there is already a pre-existing vision of the same subject followed by a majority.

In order for a minority idea to spread, it is usually first necessary that the idea in question be perceived as consistent. In other words, although it may differ over time, these differences follow an identifiable baseline that remains unchanged.

It is a matter of maintaining consistency, both at the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels (i.e. that the baseline idea is the same for the person him/herself over time and for the different people who defend it). This coherence must be maintained even in spite of the existence of pressures (whether explicit or implicit) or social disapproval of the majority, which nevertheless ends up being fixed in this persistence.

Another element to be taken into account is the fact that the spread of ideas occurs not only among people belonging to the same minority group, but also reaches and is accepted by some exponents of the majority. This is important so that other people who are part of the same ideological current notice the new idea as something that has been acceptable to someone who belongs to the same group with which they identify. They would serve, thus, as an example for the expansion of the idea in question to take place.

The process of ideological contagion

The minority idea is not immediately accepted: the majority at first ignores it or even despises it.. But little by little it becomes known about it, its consistency over time, and some people become sympathetic to the ideology in question. Gradually, some members of the majority come to regard the idea as something positive, and in some cases come to share it.

In turn, this "conversion" is perceived by the rest of the majority group as something viable, and it begins to be seen and it begins to be seen that the idea is not just for "the different one", but something that can be embraced by others. And as it is shared more and more, it ends up reaching a significant number of the population, which in turn will generate more and more social acceptance. In the end, the idea that was initially considered strange may become mainstream.

The turning point

It is considered that there is a tipping point from which an idea that is initially a minority idea becomes observed and expands at great speed. Some studies have identified this point as the point at which the idea or ideology in question expands until it reaches about 10% of a population.. Although until then the idea has been expanding, it is at this point that it begins to make a great social echo and reaches a level of expansion that can turn it into a majority.

Examples

Clear examples of the expansion of ideas are those that can be seen in the introduction to this article. Black, women's and homosexual rights were aspects that in their beginnings were considered aberrant and ridiculous, and yet today (although some social sectors still persist in opposing them) are elements that are integrated or in the process of integration in most of society.

For example, two centuries ago, to think that a woman could vote, that blacks had the same rights as whites or that someone who felt sexual inclination towards people of the same sex deserved and could love whomever they wanted was unthinkable, but today what is strange for the majority is the opposite.

Many scientific advances, such as the performance of surgeries involving the opening of the body and the manipulation of internal organs (something unthinkable and criminalized in other times), the importance of hygiene or much more recent elements such as stem cell research have also undergone changes of this type. Even cultures and religions (for example, Christianity was persecuted for centuries by the Roman Empire until it became the predominant religion of that empire) have developed in the same way. Social movements, such as the recent Arab Spring, have also followed the same principle.have also followed the same principle.

However, the truth is that good and positive ideas for human beings in general have not always spread. Ideologies such as Nazism or fascism in general have also emerged and spread in the same way.

Bibliographical references:

• Moscovici, S. & Personnaz, B. (1980). Studies in social influence V: Minority influence and conversión behavior in a perceptual task. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 16: 270-282. Xie, J.; Sreenivasan, S.; Korniss, G.; Zhang, W.; Lim, C. & Szymanski, B.K. (2011). Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities. Physical Review E. 84 (1). American Physical Society.