Social norms

The New York Times makes another tipping point claim today.  This one seems more believable:  “For many gay rights advocates, the decision amounts to a turning point in the debate — the moment at which opposition to same-sex marriage came to look like bigotry, similar to racial discrimination and the subordination of women.”  Attitudes regarding gay marriage (and segregation, women’s rights, ...) are social norms, and norm formation is a process that social scientists have studied and modeled extensively.  Almost all of these models do exhibit tipping behavior.  Whether or not this is in fact the tipping point for norms regarding the definition of marriage is an empirical question, but such a tipping point almost certainly exists.