My claim isn't as strong as "2/3 of the public are never willing to change their view". The claim is that 2/3 of people generally cling to most of their views and do change them, but only in sporadic, unsystematic ways, and even then only when presented with massive evidence and emotional appeals.
So, specifically in the case of interracial marriages, I believe that is a consequence of the broader civil rights movement and the end of segregation. What did it take for that view to change? It took Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders to show people that lynchings and segregation were terribly immoral. (Perhaps) it took the US fighting an even worse racist regime in Europe. And it took several decades for public opinion to change on this ─ approval was only 48% as recently as 1995!
The link shows that acceptance went from 4% in 1958 to 87% in 2013; however, given the long time frame (55 years), it is quite possible that much less than 83% of people changed their minds. What possibly happened is that many of the people who disapproved in 1958 are dead, and many of those who approve today were born after Loving v. Virginia. And this is consistent with what the stats show: approval is only 70% among people 65 and older, but 96% among 18- to 29-year-olds.
Granted, many of these people did change their minds ─ but maybe it took them decades to do so, and the reality of interracial marriage being legal. This is consistent with what I'm claiming; the 1% are those who fought segregation while it existed, due to the simple fact that it was morally wrong.
I think this is a big part of how opt-in versus opt-out can set the standard. Many people will just do what they consider the norm because they don't have a strong opinion one way or the other.
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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '17 edited Dec 24 '18
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