The 5 per cent of people who get to decide everything

What happens when 95 per cent of people like something, but 5 per cent of people prefer something else?

You might think natural democracy would prevail: that the 5 per cent would acquiesce and go along with the taste of the majority. Not necessarily. In many cultural settings, it is common for a small, intransigent minority to beat a much larger, tolerant majority. If you’re hosting a dinner party, for instance, all it takes is one git with a spurious ‘fenugreek intolerance’ to veto your best lamb curry.

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Julie Burchill

Will I ever pee again?

You might call this ‘the asymmetry of tolerance’, where certain social systems end up calibrated to suit their most inflexible component. If the majority prefers X but will tolerate Y, while a minority will only accept Y, what matters is not the weight of numbers or the strength of preference: intransigence carries the day.

Take your typical drinks party. One group of people have a strong overall preference for beer but are happy to drink wine (I will generally drink anything at a pinch, except retsina); however, 20 per cent of women (10 per cent of the group overall) will typically not drink beer under any circumstances. So at any mixed event, the host can get away with serving only wine. Wine is the Type O blood of alcoholic drinks; you can give it to anyone. The intolerant 10 per cent hence defeat the easygoing, beer-preferring majority.

The disproportionate ubiquity of certain foods can be explained by this effect. Pizza is a hugely successful food not so much because it is loved but because nobody hates it: even your picky children will eat it. By contrast, it is a risky venture to open a fish or steak restaurant: in any group of five or more people, there will always be one who doesn’t feel like eating fish or steak: their lone veto will prevail, and everyone will end up at Nando’s instead (chicken being the Type O-negative of the meat world).