Want to Shift a Group’s Opinion? Research Suggests Encouraging Opponents to ‘Sit on the Fence’

New research shows that allowing people to "sit on the fence" speeds up group decisions and breaks deadlocks. Discover the power of de-escalation in consensus.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 23, 2026, 5:01 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from University of Bath

The Strategic Power of the ‘Floating Voter’

While common intuition suggests that persuading an opponent to join your side is the most direct path to change, new research published in Advanced Science argues that "de-escalation" is often more effective. Researchers led by Professor Kit Yates found that when passionate opponents are encouraged to move to a neutral position rather than forced to flip their views, the overall group becomes less entrenched. This "breathing space" allows for a cleaner transition of power or opinion, as a smaller pool of active decision-makers makes the collective more sensitive to new information and fluctuations in consensus.

Mathematical Modeling of De-escalation Routes

The team developed a mathematical model to compare two primary routes to consensus: the traditional "persuasion" route and the "de-escalation" route. In the latter, disagreement pushes individuals into a neutral state before they eventually choose a new side independently. The model demonstrates that as more people become neutral, the "active" size of the group effectively shrinks. In a smaller active group, the influence of a few individuals is magnified, allowing a new collective direction to take hold far more rapidly than in a large, polarized crowd.

Lessons from the Natural World: Marching Locusts

To test their theory, the researchers looked at the collective behavior of marching locusts. They discovered that whenever a swarm successfully switches its direction of travel, it first enters a brief, critical phase of neutrality where many locusts simply stop moving. With the majority of the group paused, the small minority that remains in motion gains a disproportionate influence over the swarm's next move. This temporary "quiet phase" acts as a reset button, allowing the group to pivot without the friction of a head-to-head struggle between competing directions.