Matthew Jarman, Andrzej Nowak, Wojciech Borkowski, David Serfass, Alexander Wong and Robin Vallacher (2015) **The Critical Few: Anticonformists at the Crossroads of Minority Opinion Survival and Collapse** Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 18 (1) 6 <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/18/1/6.html> Received: 17-Jun-2014 Accepted: 20-Sep-2014 Published: 31-Jan-2015 **Abstract** To maintain stability yet retain the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, social systems must strike a balance between the maintenance of a shared reality and the survival of minority opinion. A computational model is presented that investigates the interplay of two basic, oppositional social processes—conformity and anticonformity—in promoting the emergence of this balance. Computer simulations employing a cellular automata platform tested hypotheses concerning the survival of minority opinion and the maintenance of system stability for different proportions of anticonformity. Results revealed that a relatively small proportion of anticonformists facilitated the survival of a minority opinion held by a larger number of conformists who would otherwise succumb to pressures for social consensus. Beyond a critical threshold, however, increased proportions of anticonformists undermined social stability. Understanding the adaptive benefits of balanced oppositional forces has implications for optimal functioning in psychological and social processes in general.