Networks Digest
A spotlight on network-related resources
Issue #18, June 2006
The Tipping Point: How little
things can make a big difference
Malcolm Gladwell
In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes a “biography”
of the idea that social change has all the characteristics of a
viral epidemic. Like a dormant, slowly spreading virus that
suddenly becomes deadly, minor changes in the way an idea
is framed, or in the context in which an idea emerges, can
cause an idea to break out of obscurity and spread rapidly
and exponentially. Gladwell uses his biography to explain
how social change often materializes in one dramatic
moment or “tipping point” – the moment when an idea
moves from possibility to certainty. He supports his
argument with a wide range of research and several detailed
case studies, including the success of Hush Puppies shoes,
Paul Revere (the American industrialist and hero in the War
of Independence), and the success of educational television
programs such as Sesame Street and Blues Clues. He frames
his argument with three principles: the law of the few; the
stickiness factor; and the power of context.
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The law of the few holds that the success of any social
epidemic is heavily dependent on a few people who have
particular, rare social gifts. Gladwell contends that word of
mouth is the most important and mysterious form of human
communication, and that ideas spread by word of mouth
with the aid of three kinds of people: connectors, mavens, and
salesmen. Connectors link people, and networks of people, in
wider networks of relationships. Mavens are adept at
gathering information and generous about sharing it with
people they know, while salesmen are master persuaders
who have the ability to convince people to consider new
ideas. He insists that “some people do matter more than
others,” and this small group of energetic, highly charged
people often drives social change.
The stickiness factor is the special characteristic that renders
a message so memorable that it entices people to learn more
or to take action. Gladwell argues that small changes to a
message can dramatically enhance its stickiness. He writes
that, “Despite wanting to believe that the key to making an
impact lies in the inherent quality of the ideas… the real key
lies in the way the message is presented. There is often a
simple way to package information that, under the right
circumstances, can make it irresistible.” With examples from
direct marketing, social psychology research, and
educational television, he shows how efforts made to create
“sticky” messages can make all the difference in the way an
idea, message, or social change spreads.
Gladwell’s third idea, the power of context, is the radical
idea that people are far more sensitive to environment or
context than is generally understood. Behaviour is a
function of social context, he asserts, and small changes in
context influence the way people respond to a message.
He argues that when interpreting behaviour, humans
invariably make what is referred to as the fundamental
Key messages
• A tipping point is the moment when an idea moves
from possibility to certainty.
• A tipping point is governed by three key principles:
“the law of the few;” “the stickiness factor;” and “the
power of context.”
• Three kinds of people – connectors, mavens, and
salesmen – create tipping points when their messages,
combined with particular circumstances, begin to
radically alter behaviours or beliefs.
• A tipping point is reached by attending to details – to
the people who deliver the message, to the kinds of
messages delivered, and to the appropriateness of the
context in which the message spreads.
attribution error: they overestimate the importance of
fundamental character traits and underestimate the
importance of context. Gladwell uses the example of the
cleanup of the New York subway to illustrate how, in a
major city, relatively small changes in context can affect
much larger issues like crime rates.
The author concludes his biography with the case of Georgia
Sadler, a woman who wanted to increase knowledge and
awareness of diabetes and breast cancer in a community in
San Diego. She worked long and hard in churches, with little
success, before changing the context of her message by
bringing it to San Diego’s beauty salons. She recognized that
women spend many hours with their hairdressers. So, Ms.
Sadler asked folklorists to train stylists – women she saw as
being connectors, mavens, and salesmen – to spread
information about breast cancer to their clients in
compelling, sticky ways. Most importantly, she continuously
evaluated her efforts and altered her program often to make
sure her message was really spreading. Her plan worked
because she paid attention to the little details – to the people
who delivered her message, to the kind of message she
delivered, and to the appropriateness of the educational
context.
Human communication is a messy, opaque process that
does not always accord with human intuition. Those who
successfully create social epidemics consistently test their
intuition in deliberate, systematic ways – and then continue
to test and retest as needed. They do this because they
believe that a tipping point can be reached, that change is
possible, and that people can radically transform their
behaviour or beliefs when presented with the right kinds of
messages, by the right kinds of people, in the right place, at
the right time.
Gladwell, Malcolm. 2002. The Tipping Point: How little
things can make a big difference. (301 p) Little, Brown and
Company, New York.
Networks Digest - Issue #18 was featured on June 25, 2006. For more information about the Networks Digest series or to
retrieve other summaries, please visit www.chsrf.ca/networks. Please note that this summary is an interpretation and it is not
necessarily endorsed by the author(s) of the work cited.
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