The Spanish flu and the Law of Stickiness
The author talked about the Law of Stickiness according to which and event or an idea must be powerful enough to "infect’’ a large number of people in a short period of time. To explain how the law works, the author talked about the Spanish flu. At the beginning of the 20th century, an epidemic of flu took by storm the entire world and more than 6% of the population died. The reason that the disease spread so easily was because the virus mutated and changed in such a way that they were easily transmissible from one infected person to another and was extremely violent. The author compared the way the Spanish Flu transmitted with the way in which some companies marketed their products. In this context, the author talks about the way Coca-Cola marketed their products and with the rapidity with which the product’s fame grew I a short period of time. This comparison shows that the Laws discussed by the author can be applied to more than just one domain of life and that it can affect everyone, everywhere.
Like a rat
In the fourth chapter, the author describes an event that took place in New York in the 1990s. Then, a man shot and killed three black people at the subway simply because they stopped and asked him for money. Thinking back on his actions, the man, Goetz, admitted that he felt like a rat, trapped and forced to do something he did not necessarily want to. The author clarifies this idea, claiming that Goetz’s actions were the result of the way the environment shaped him and the result of various outside factors that made him behave in an undesirable manner.
Our social circle and an army
In the sixth chapter, the author talks about the maximum number of people a person can be acquainted with. Studies have shown that we can hold a maximum of 150 relationships with other people. The author compares this number with the number of soldiers in an army. In the past, a division in the army was composed of maximum 200 people and the same thing goes for religious groups. The author highlights the similarity between the two groups in order to show that our decisions are not as arbitrary as we think they are.
Airwalk and drug addicts
In the sixth chapter, the author tries to explain how information spreads and how it is transmitted from one person to another. He mentions an ad campaign organized by a company called Airwalk, marketing their shoes. To make the reader understand more easily how the information spread, the author compared the company’s strategy with something the government had done in America in the 80s. During that time, the Government founded the Needle exchange program, allowing drug addicts to exchange their used needles with brand new ones, reducing the risk of transmitting even further various illnesses. Some people profited from the program, exchanging dirty needles for clean ones for free and then selling the clean ones to drug addicts. However, in both cases, the efforts were successful and both the Needle Exchange program and the Airwalk Company became successful and well known. The author uses the similarity between the two to make the reader understand more easily how information is transmitted and how it can affect the lives of those it reaches.
Smoking and the suicide pandemic
Towards the end of the book, the author talks about two similar events, the suicide pandemic that took by storm Micronesia and the smoking pandemic that affected America. In both cases, the people who were affected the most were the teenagers who were the easiest to influence and to control and in both cases the practices affected the lives of those doing the actions in a direct manner. By comparing the two situations, the author highlights the idea that while in some cases positive aspects are promoted and that those idea end up affecting the lives of the people in a positive manner, in most cases, the events end up affecting the lives of the people in a negative way, by exposing them to dangerous and damaging behaviors.
