Review: The Tipping Point

Clarisa Melendez

Review: The Tipping Point

Malcom Gladwell’s 2002 novel The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference touches upon social epidemics and the close study of how ideas, and messages spread like wildfire to a vast audience. Gladwell refers to small concepts that can trigger major trends in the way people dress, think and act. It’s a phenomenon he refers to as the “tipping point” because the social epidemic seemingly goes from invisible to one of the most popular tendencies overnight.

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In order to best explain this concept, he breaks it down into three categories: the people who provoke a social epidemic; the content of the concept; and the environment in which the epidemic occurs. In a world where 7 billion people live in, its important to analyze how movements become popularized. There exists certain laws that facilitate these trends, with the first one being “Law of the Few.” According to the novel, it is characterized by people who are very well known, and like to spread information to their friends and family. These people are known as the “connectors.” There are also other people that are eager to accumulate new knowledge and tell others about it. They’re most likely the person who explains why the product is so great. These people are identified as “Maven” and will usually tell a “Connector” so they can also tell their group. The Salesman is the third type of person that is characterized in the novel as well. The Salesman will use their persuasive manners to influence people to join the bandwagon and start embodying the new trend.

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Once we’ve understood the three types of people that help facilitate social epidemics, a second law called “stickiness” comes to play. For a trend to be successful, there needs to be an impressive and unforgettable factor to it that makes it stand out. This is why they refer to it as “sticky” because the idea will stick to you like hot glue because of it's cool message. Well known companies will have a huge researching team to figure out who their target audience is and what types of trends are popular in order to best understand what products will be most effective and last. An example used in the novel is Sesame Street. Researchers understood that their audience are kids and parents so the television show made sure their program was fun and educative. By including a playful narrative that helps kids learn as well, the tv show became popularized among households leading to high ratings.

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The third law to understand social epidemics is the principle of context. Different groups of people will act a certain way because of the environment they’ve grown up in. The behaviors they’ve learned are purposeful and not by accident. The principle can be better understood through examples used by Gladwell. He states the Broken Window Hypothesis which proposes the idea that in order to influence in a larger scale, one must first analyze the small scope. For example, to decrease serious crime rates in New York City, police officials first made sure to combat minor crimes such as graffiti. Once this theory was implemented, a significant decrease was seen in NYC in the 1980s because people noticed the environment was not supportive of these crimes, influencing people to avoid committing them. In simpler terms, a concept or trend needs to be analyzed from the root of the idea and not just by the larger scope.

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Overall Gladwell is very effective in informing the reader about what a social epidemic is and how it can truly affect a vast audience. Being able to closely understand society’s behaviors allows for a greater insight in trends, and phenomenons and overall attitude. I highly recommend this novel to people who are interested in the way society works and the influences that go behind it. It is truly a great read!