TROY, N.Y., July 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say that when just 10 percent of a population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of society.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute said they used computational and analytical methods to discover the "tipping point" where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion.


"When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas," said Boleslaw Szymanski, head of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center at Rensselaer.

"Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame."

Szymanski cited the ongoing events in Tunisia and Egypt as examples.

"In those countries, dictators who were in power for decades were suddenly overthrown in just a few weeks," he said.

Researchers say the study has broad implications for understanding how opinion spreads, a Renssalaer release reported.

"There are clearly situations in which it helps to know how to efficiently spread some opinion or how to suppress a developing opinion," study co-author Gyorgy Korniss said.