Opportunism is the conscious policy and practice of taking selfish advantage of circumstances – with little regard for principles, or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term can be applied to individual humans and living organisms, groups, organizations, styles, behaviours, and trends.

Opportunism or "opportunistic behavior" is an important concept in such fields as biology, transaction cost economics, game theory, ethics, psychology, sociology and politics.

In choosing or utilizing opportunities, human opportunism is most likely to occur:

If people are criticized for being "opportunists", this usually refers to a situation in which the beliefs and principles which people have are being put to the test (or are being challenged).

To identify and understand opportunist behaviour among people, it is often necessary to refer to the intentions or motive of the people involved, in relation to an accepted behavioural norm. Since what is not permissible (or frowned upon) in one culture may be normal in another, an element of cultural bias can occur in defining behaviours as "opportunist".

Kevin Abosch (born 1969) is an Irish visual artist and portrait photographer of Hollywood celebrities including Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise. His work has been seen in international magazine features and covers, including Vogue. An article in the March 2008 issue of Vogue Italia reads "Abosch knows the true face of a star". In January 2010, a major retrospective of Abosch's portrait photography was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in Serbia. In October 2011, a major exhibition launched in Dublin Airport's Terminal 2 of Abosch's "Faces of Ireland", a series of 250 photographs of the citizenry of Ireland.

A series of 1000 photographic portraits by Abosch of the citizenry of Paris, France. Among the subjects are such notable Parisians as Pascal Greggory, Audrey Marnay, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, and Bernard Blancan. On November 5, 2010 Abosch gave a press-conference in Paris at the 2010 "Salon de la Photo" exposition at which he announced the project.

Faces of Ireland is a series of photographic portraits by Abosch of the citizens of Ireland, representing each of the island's 32 counties, many of Ireland's most famous faces have participated including Graeme McDowell,Rory McIlroy,Pierce Brosnan, Darren Clarke, Sarah Bolger,Neil Jordan, Sinéad O'Connor, Seamus Heaney, Brian O'Driscoll, Colm Toibin, Mary McAleese, Gabriel Byrne, and Enda Kenny,. Launched in October 2011, a major exhibition of 250 of Abosch's large-scale (44"x44") photographic portraits filled Dublin Airport's Terminal 2.

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old African American male who was unarmed. George Zimmerman was a 28-year-old multi-racial Hispanic American, who was the community watch coordinator for the gated community where the shooting took place.

While on a private errand, Zimmerman saw Martin walking inside the gated community where Martin and his father were visiting his father's fiancée. Zimmerman called the Sanford Police Department to report Martin's behavior as suspicious. Shortly afterwards, there was an altercation, which ended with Zimmerman fatally shooting Martin once in the chest at close range.

When police arrived on the scene Zimmerman told them that Martin had attacked him and that he had shot Martin in self-defense. Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose and two vertical lacerations on the back of his head.EMTs treated Zimmerman at the scene, after which he was taken to the Sanford Police Department. Zimmerman was detained and questioned for approximately five hours. A statement was videotaped, and he was then released without being charged. Police said that they had not found evidence to contradict his assertion of self-defense.

Professor Yogendra Yadav is an Indian social scientist. He was appointed as a member of the National Advisory Council for the implementation of the Right to Education Act in 2010. He was appointed a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in 2004.

Yogendra Yadav lists his areas of interest as including "democratic theory, election studies, survey research, political theory, modern Indian political thought and Indian socialism."

In 2009 the International Political Science Association awarded Yadav the first Global South Solidarity Award "in recognition of outstanding work on the politics of the developing world".