The snowball effect is how as a minority remains consistent it gains supports from others. attitudes can be changed by few speaking repeatedly about something they believe in. An example of this is advocates for gay rights

Zeigeist means 'spirit of our time.' It means that in order for change to occur society has to be ready to accept new ideas.
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was universally unpopular because his views were at odds with the majority opinion that humans had been created by God . Over time the view of natural selection as a mechanism for the development of new species became more acceptable to the majority. Most people now believe in evolution.

AIM: To determine whether a minority can influence a majority of naive participants and reverse the usual direction of social influence To investigate the conditions needed for this to occur.

Procedure: Groups of 6 female Ps were presented 36 blue slides that varied in their brightness. Ps all had good eyesight and were not colorblind. Ps were asked to name aloud the color on the slides. There were 2 confederates who were asked to say the slide was green on every trial or on every two thirds of trials. Minority influence was measured by the % of Ps who agreed wrongly with the confederates.

Findings: When the confederates said the slide was green on every trail the % of green responses from the Ps was 8%. 32% of all naive Ps said green once. When the confederates said the slide was green on 2/3 of trials the % of green responses was only 1%.

Therefore demonstrating the importance of consistency when influencing a majority.

The experiment was based on a mock jury in which groups of 3 Ps and 1 confederate had to decide the amount of compensation to give to a victim of a ski-lift accident. When the confederate argued for a very low amount and refused to alter their attitude he had no influence on the majority. However, when he compromised and move someway towards the majority view the majority too often compromised.

Nazi leader claiming that they were simply following order during the Holocaust is support recently be ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbian soldier in Yugoslavia Soldiers allegedly received order to rape Muslim women in a direct attempt to undermine the fabric of Muslim family life..

For example, in Milligram's initial studies the shocks began at and then continued in small increments up to 450v. Research has found that simply signing up to a petition lad to increased monetary support for charities and that filling out a questionnaire increases the willingness of people to sign app as organ donor- this is the 'foot in the door' effect.'

Milgram found that the presence of obedient models increased obedience and the presence of disobedient models decreased obedience. Social models have been shown to influence positive social change causing an increase. For example, the Dalai Lama promoting non-violent protest against the Chinese oppression in Tibet.