Monthly Archives: April 2010

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

by Malcolm Gladwell

Little, Brown and Company; 304 pages; 19.99 paperback

Events and trends sometimes appear to evolve and spread on their own. While most understand that certain diseases like seasonal flus can become epidemic because of the potency of the virus or the environment, not many can explain why Hush Puppies shoes suddenly became popular once again, or why the crime rate in New York City dropped drastically in a matter of months.

Gladwell explains how tends become epidemic. First “the law of the few” emphasizes that it takes a few extraordinary people to participate in the event for it to become epidemic. Such people belong to one of the three classes: “connectors,” individuals with great numbers of acquitances; “mavens,” members of a group who possess extraordinary wealth of knowledge; and “salesmen,” people who are exceedingly persuasive and charismatic.

Second, “the stickiness factor” suggests that some things are more memorable than others. A event can seem to take on a life of its own if it’s sufficiently sticky in the audience’s mind.

Finally, “the power of context” cannot be ignored. Given the right circumstances, seemingly insignificant changes may result in unexpected great changes.

Gladwell’s theory is well illustrated by his opening example of the popular revival of Hush Puppies. Apparently, a few “hip” New York youths decided one day that the shoes were cool. Their many friends became persuaded and started wearing them too. The trend was caught by a few name-brand designers, mavens in the design business. and the shoes were shown on the runway. Finally, the mass media, society’s great persuader, pushed the trend over the tipping point. The next thing you know, teenagers in America were flocking to the malls snatching them up.

However, not every example in the book is as convincing. Gladwell spends more than half a chapter explaining the success of the TV series Sesame Street, which he posits is tailor-made to suit the children’s cognitive development and therefore exceedingly memorable to its audience. Gladwell claims that a second TV show, “Blue’s Clues” was deliberated engineered to piggy-back on the success of Sesame Street by bringing the children’s experience to the next level.

Alas, while I did watch Sesame Street when I was a kid (not finding it that memorable), I have never heard of the show Blue’s Clues. Upon further inquiries in the community, I’ve learned that the series’ fame seems to be confined to the narrow niche of three to five year-olds. Evidently, Blue’s Clues isn’t as memorable to the public as Sesame Street.

In an attempt to explain the sudden and drastic decline in New York City’s crime rate, Gladwell relies on the “broken window” theory. It suggests that after the city imposed a zero-tolerance policy on vandalism, people became disinclined to commit violent crimes.

While the theory provides a convenient explanation of the crime turn-around, Gladwell neglects to address the fact that this theory has been discredited in academia and by criminologists in particular.* They suggest that the theory equates correlation to causality – a type of reasoning prone to fallacy.

Gladwell seems oblivious to the weakness of his examples throughout the book. Most of his arguments are merely self-serving. Potential criticisms are conveniently ignored. The Tipping Point, while suitable for pleasure reading, unfortunately isn’t written for the critical eye.

*see e.g. David Thatcher (2004), Order Maintenance Reconsidered