The markets exposed to nonviolent action are diverse. This diversity can be brought into focus by considering three relevant facets of opinions:
- Preference
- Importance, and
- Motivation.
Few people approach an issue without an initial leaning or preference.
- For example, it is well documented that people use stereotypes to make initial, quick judgements and to filter information from a world overflowing with information.
- The concepts of ideology or party membership reflect a similar idea. For example, most people who see themselves as a Democrat or Republican is offering the idea.
- For some, the filters are strong, coloring all new information with the hue that their ideology imposes.
- For others, the filters are weak, organizing and highlighting initial information, but letting some of the raw, new information sift in and have its own impact.
Information also gets treated differently depending on how important it is in both an intellectual and emotional sense.
- Intellectual importance reflects whether an issue has been scrutinized and viewed from different perspectives and whether a person has aligned the issue with his or her values.
- Emotional importance reflects whether a person experiences the issue personally or if someone close experiences the issue.
For example, consider the issue of abortion and a person with an initial leaning towards a pro-choice position. The issue may be intellectually important if the person has thought deeply about the issue, considered many perspectives and come to a position that is consistent with his or her values. The issue, though, is not necessarily emotionally or motivationally important. For example, this person may not see him or herself ever facing this decision in a personal way or see those in his or her inner circle every facing this decision.
For practical purposes, our model uses these three concepts, Preference, Importance, and Motivation, to classify people into eight opinion groups.
