Malcom Gladwell develops complex concepts within his simple and clear stories. This is the second book I’ve read from Gladwell, and it was a good read. The Tipping Point discussed three characteristics that cause epidemics: contagiousness/stickiness, how little causes have big effects, and how change happens in one dramatic moment. And this is the the tipping point.
Law of the Few
Within the spread of viral, social epidemics, the 80/20 rule grows to an even smaller fraction. Only select people initiate and spread epidemics. For example, a handful of sexual deviants who go home with someone new nightly spread disease among many people. On the social side, people with many connections can help generate buzz around a product.
Gladwell broke these people into three types:
Connectors: These are the people that seem to have connections with everyone. There was an experiment that asked people from Omaha to send a postal mail as close as they could to an address in Boston. If people didn’t know anyone from that address, they’d send to the closest nearby (e.g. their aunt in Connecticut). They found that the mail took about five or six sends to get to the specific address (Six degrees of Kevin Bacon). Connectors bring our world together. They are people who like people, and they have many diverse groups that they are part of. Connectors connect our world with other people.
Mavens: Mavens are people who accumulate knowledge. They care deeply about the products they invest in, and they can give you the details to a Consumer Report level. A mavens opinion is very influential. In this world of mass information, we generally will go to the mavens we know to get their opinion to ensure we are making the right decision. In marketing, we need to make sure the mavens are happy. They are the ones that dispute the finest detail, but once they’re on your side, you have a powerful tool to spread the word.
Salesman: These people have the ability to persuade. Good ones enjoy helping people. And they have quality answers to a person’s common objections. People enjoy salesman who have energy, enthusiasm, charm. It’s likability and their positive people even before speaking with them. Being positive and being confident go a long way in sales. Emotion is contagious.
Gladwell then brings up stories about the positive approach on influence. People who nod their heads in an argument will side with the person. On the other side, people who shake their heads while listening to an argument (despite their initial thoughts) will disagree. Our subliminal thought go a long way. For news anchors who favor a certain politician, this subliminal affects their views and persuades them to also like that politician. Interesting stories.
Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue. They spread it. And salesman have the ability to persuade the unconvinced.
RULE: There are exceptional people out there capable of starting epidemics.
Stickiness Factor
Disease is sticky; memorable advertising is sticky. The package must be sticky to be transferred.
Here, Gladwell uses the example of the success of Sesame Street. Reaching the audience isn’t the challenge. It’s making the content stick that’s the real challenge. Interactive is the best way. And slight changes make a big difference. Adding a campus map to get a tetanus shot greatly increased adoption. This connects the dots.
Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch greatly increases kids attention to Sesame Street. Blues Clues took the basics of Sesame Street and increased the attention span once again. This simplified the show even greater for children. It removed humor (humor is confusing for children; they stuck to one story, and kids loved it. They also didn’t have budget for many shows, so a Blues Clues’ show had to be played for the entire week. This played well with the kids. They like watching shows over and over.
RULE: There’s a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, will make it irresistible. The content needs to be memorable and move us to action.
Power of Context
In 1968, 38 people watched from their apartment as Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death. No one called the police. When these people were interviewed to why they didn’t take action, they didn’t necessarily have an answer to why they didn’t take action. They just thought it was cold New York. This spurred a social experiment where a person would be having an epileptic seizure. What’s interesting… is if only one person was around, they would help 85% of the time. However, if there were three other people around to help, the person only received help 31% of the time. People assume others will be taking care of this person. No one wants responsibility unless they have to take it on. Our environment guides our actions.
Broken Window Theory: Crime is the result of disorder. If a window is broken and unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares; no one is in charge. More windows will be broken and the anarchy will spread. If you fix the window, clean up the graffiti – crime can be avoided. Minor crimes tip major crimes. This theory was the start of cleaning up New York. They started with the little things: cleaning graffiti and repairing windows, and then crime started to disappear. Minor crimes lead into major crims.
Much of our environment dictates on how we act at that moment. For example, a study was done to see what factors contribute to children cheating on tests. What they found was that many variables contribute to cheating: older children cheat more than younger children, happy homes cheat less than unstable homes. And these same children when confronted with different circumstances – whether at home or at school, the complexity of the material, or the time to finish the exam- changed. No certain person or factor seemed to decide on the cheating. Rather, it was the environment that dictated this.
On top of this, a social experiment was done with students entering the ministry. The students were given the task to prepare a speech about being a good samaritan. However, once the student arrived to class, the professor would tell them they either had a few minutes to relax or that they were ten minutes late. The speech was to be given at another place nearby, and the student would briskly walk to this meeting place, but on the way, they’d run into someone needing help.
If the student was running late, they’d only help this person in need 10% of the time. However, if they had a few minutes, 63 percent stopped. Time was the deciding factor on whether or not they helped, despite being a student in the ministry and giving a speech on good samaritism.
Then we take the law of 150. In a social group, 150 generally is the max number to run this group effectively. At this number, orders can be implemented and unruly behavior controlled. In the villages of Australia to the Amish, 150 has been that magic number where if the group reaches it, the group splits to form another village. The rule of 150 is a subtle contextual factor that makes a big difference in the success or failure of a group.
RULE: The conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur have a major effect on the outcome.
Conclusion:
“We are powerfully influenced by our surroundings, our immediate context, and the personalities that surround us.”
This book attempts to understand the external factors that grow certain epidemics. For Airwalk in the 90s, skateboarders adopted this brand because it was for them; it was a different shoe only sold for them. Then Airwalk grew in popularity and started to sell their product in malls and eventually became mainstream. Trendsetters hated this. They want to be different. And this ultimate, saw Airwalk’s loss of success. They lost their specialized shoe.
Our external environment changes our mind. In 1999, 42 children in Belgium had to be hospitalized. They reported headaches and nausea. They found that the issue came from drinking a batch of Coke. The company did its research and found that contaminated carbon dioxide had been used. What’s interesting though is that this contaminated carbon dioxide should have only imparted a bad smell; no sickness at all. It may have affected a few kids, but not 42. And some of these children didn’t even drink coke that day. Mass hysteria such as this is easily spread through children. It’s the same thing when someone says they may have eaten something bad, and you were at that same restaurant. Then you begin to play mind games with yourself. These types of factors boil into a tipping point of epidemics. Our mind them believes were sick, and the epidemic grows.
Many factors contribute to this. On game shows, contestants rate the questioners being a lot smarter than themselves. Many of our friends are built by proximity, rather than similar interests.
Gladwell does a great job to show his philosophy on the growth of epidemics. The little things in our world cause them. When we see this, it’s important to not go after the major crimes. It won’t be effective. Rather, go after the minor details to solve the issue. Kill the root; don’t go after the tree.