The action of the story begins in the 90s in Baltimore. The city struggled with an epidemic of syphilis and doctors and scientists tried to figure out the reason why the number of people infected with syphilis rose drastically. Many blamed the drug users and a lack of doctors in the area while some considered that the appearance of poor neighborhoods facilitated the spread of the disease.
The author argues that the disease spread because of all the tree elements mentioned above and that the combination of those elements creates an event he calls as being the Tipping Point.
Gladwell talks about the Law of the Few, according to which, every epidemic or change in the society is the result of the actions of a small number of people. The he talks about the Law of Stickiness according to which an idea or disease has to be able to spread quickly from one person to another in order to survive. Next, he talks about the Law of Context and how depending on the context we find ourselves in, we might react in different manners because of outside elements. The combination of the three factors creates the tipping point in the author’s perspective.
In the second chapter, the author mentions an important event in the history of America, when a man named Paul Revere rode his horse all night, going from one town to another and warning the people about the imminent British invasion. In another part of America, another man tried to do the same thing Paul did but was not as successful. In the second chapter, the author tried to analyze the factors that made Paul be more successful than the other man, William Dawes. Gladwell argues that the reason why Paul was more successful was because he was a ‘’Connector’’, a person who knew a lot of people from different social environments and who could reach many people in a short period of time. He was a sociable man and thus the people he reached were more likely to listen to him. In contrast, William Dawes was an ordinary man with little to no connections or skills and thus the people he meet were reluctant to listen to him and to his news. But the Connectors also need people to tell them information from people who accumulate information or ‘’Mavens’’.
Gladwell mentions the Market Mavens, people who know the price of everything and who can figure out when a store is lying when claiming to have low prices or sales. The market mavens are important because they impede the stores and business owners from lying to their customers.
Apart from the connectors and the mavens, another groups of people is important, namely the salesmen who can convince anyone to buy their products or to believe in something they tell them to believe in. A good salesman can influence the people he surrounds himself with to the point where he can transmit certain state of minds or attitudes without expressing them vocally. This type of people do not need to express themselves verbally to influence others as their body language and face expressions are enough to transmit a certain mood or emotional state.
In chapter 3, the author talks about the producer of the show Sesame Street and how she managed to use the TV to teach children and various methods used by her to promote the show and to make sure that it is perceived well by the audience.
The author analyzes what makes a message to be sticky and to be attractive to other people, thus facilitating the rate and rapidity at which it is spread. An idea or message must be attractive to become famous in a short period of time and ad agencies spend millions of dollars researching the factors that make a piece of information attractive and appealing. The ad agencies found that a person needs to see a piece of advertisement six times before the ad remains in a person’s mind. The ideas promoted must also be simple but affective, ensuring that a viewer remembers them easily. Fear and the association between one piece of information and the unpleasant feeling of fear can also make a person remember of information more easily.
Because so many companies chose to advertise their products in an insistent manner, it became necessary for the methods used to become better and more efficient. To make the show Sesame Street more successful, the producers studied children and what made them be more attentive. Then, they made the according adjustments and were able to create a show that captured the attention of millions of children. While their objective was to make the show as popular as possible among children, the producers also took great care in making sure that the educational aspect was not ignored and that the children did learn something at the end of the show. The researchers found that what makes a certain ad attractive is not its complexity but rather the ability of those designing it to present the message in a clear and simple way.
In the fourth chapter, the author mentions a man named Goetz who was sent to trial for the murder of three black men. He notes that when Goetz killed the men, he was hailed as a hero because the crime rates in the city skyrocketed and many praised him for his courage. When the crime rates dropped, Goetz’s actions were considered as being something negative and he was judged for his actions. This event showed just how important context is when analyzing an event and how a certain context can influence us and the way we think. Thus, when humans act in an undesirable way, they do so because they are the product of the environment and because various flaws they have are magnified by the environment and by the people they surround themselves with. An experiment that showed just how much the environment can change a person’s behavior was the Stanford Prison experiment that had to be called off only after a few days.
In another experiment, psychologists tested the environments which would make a person more tempted to cheat on a test and they found that certain environmental factors can influence a person’s decisions and that no person is either good or bad: their decisions are influenced by various external influences. In fact, it was proven that we as humans are less willing to help a person in need if we are in a hurry. This does not make a person good or bad, it just makes that person be controlled by the environment.
In the sixth chapter, the author talks about another writer, Rebecca Wells who published a book in 1996. While at first the book was far from being successful, the book experienced a sudden rise in sales and became extremely popular in a short period of time. The reason why the book became successful was because the writer advertised her book in an area where book clubs were popular and thus more people found out about her book. In a way, the book became contagious and many began reading it simply because someone they knew have read it too.
The author also highlights the idea that we as humans are able to form a maximum of 150 connections. Because of that, when we find ourselves in an environment with more members than 150 we tend to have problems with organizing and with getting along with the others.
In the sixth chapter, the author analyzes how another company became successful. The company sold shoes and they hired celebrities to wear and market their shoes, ensuring the success of the company. The author claimed that the first people to wear the shoes were the Early Adopters and then when the shoes became successful the people who wore them became the Early Majority. Rumors also play an important role as the message is transmitted from one person to another in a clear and quick manner.
The author also explains the important of another process, called Translation. During the Translation process, a message or piece of information is changed from impersonal to extremely personal as it is told by various people.
The author begins his seventh chapter by mentioning the suicide of a teenage boy in Micronesia, a boy named Sima. After he killed himself, the country experienced a rise in the suicide rates and the custom became quickly a part of the Micronesian culture. The author compares the suicide epidemic in Micronesia with the practice of smoking in America. He argues that in both cases, it is a social thing that cannot be changed through education. He argues that what makes other people want to kill themselves or smoke is the influence of others and if they hear or see someone they admire doing the said action, they are more likely to try and copy the person in question.
The government tried to develop various methods to try and reduce the number of people smoking. The author thinks that children can be convinced to quit smoking if they stop associating a glamorous personality with the act of smoking. Unfortunately however, parents are sometimes unable to influence their children as much as they would like to and that genetics plays a much important role in influencing the way a child will turn out to be. Gladwell also points out that children are more likely to imitate their peers rather than imitating their parents and that the parents have no power to convince their children to do or not to do something.
The government tried to combat the smoking epidemic by coming up with laws affecting the cigarette labels but the laws only strengthened even more the attraction of the habit by making it seem more glam. Alternatives to smoking have not worked either as they could not provide the smoker with the same feeling smoking a cigarette could give him.
Gladwell proposes other ways of fighting the smoking epidemic such as reducing the number of people with depression since depression was linked with smoking and also reducing the nicotine in the cigarettes so they stop being so addictive to those smoking. Gladwell also proposes that teenagers should not be punished for experimenting and argues that society should also stop correlating occasional use with addiction.
In the conclusion of the book, Gladwell talks about another important person, Georgia Sadler who spread the word about breast cancer and diabetes through the mouth of hair stylists. Her efforts changed the lives of millions of women and Gladwell argues that little changes and ideas con sometimes make a big difference and affect our lives in ways we could never believe to be possible.
