The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell "is a fascinating book that makes you see the world in different ways." (Fortune). Now I have only read about a fourth of this book so far - meaning you can expect me to post more - but I am already fascinated with the points that Gladwell has made two chapters (pages 16-89).

The first point that Gladwell discussed that captured my attention was was the 80/20 principle. "Roughly 80 percent of the work will be done by 20 percent of the participants." (Gladwell, 19). Meaning that in most situations where something because drastically unbalanced, it is most commonly caused by a small population. Now, I don't know about you, but that struck me as interesting.

Personally, I previously believed that situations or fads were caused by larger groups of people. So, to find out that most situations that become unbalanced come from the minority was a shock. Gladwell supports this claim of 80/20 by discussing an epidemic of gonorrhea in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Through an interview with a man named John Potterat, who had conducted an experiment to test this 80/20 principle; Potterat discovered that "about half of all the cases came, essentially, from four neighborhoods representing about six percent of the geographic area of the city. Half of that six percent, in turn, were socializing in the same six bars." (Gladwell, 19).

John Potterat

This means that it was a very small group of people who came from the same social environment that were the key candidates in spreading the disease throughout Colorado Springs. I'm sure you asked yourself, as I did, how could have it spread outside that small social gathering? Well, there could be a number of reasons. But, all of these numerous reasons, whatever they may have been, had to have been something that forced the group to leave their original environment to somewhere else in Colorado. This would have caused them to be in contact with a new group of people who would be subjugated to gonorrhea, and from there the disease would have spread to the new community and so on and so forth.

Now, point that Gladwell brings up is about the bystander problem. This point I found even more compelling then the first. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was the relatability of the topic, or maybe it was the shock of it that came from one of the examples Gladwell used. But, I am getting ahead of myself here so let me back track just a bit.

Gladwell's example is Kitty Genovese, who in 1964 was stabbed to death while thirty-eight bystanders watched from their apartment complexes without even attempting to help or call the poloce. Now you know what I meant by shocking and I can continue forward.

Kitty Genovese

So when I had to re-read the page a few times over because I couldn't believe that thirty-people watched, and not one of them did anything to stop what they were witnessing. To me this was impossible, until two psychologists - Bibb Latane, and John Darley - conducted an experiment to test  the bystander problem.

Staging accidents, they would test to see how many people were willing to help versus that percent who did nothing. Now, when the subject thought that they were on their own, 85% of the time they rushed into help. However, when they believed that others were around that number dropped to 31% of the time.

This is because, as individuals we believe it is our responsibility to help someone who we believe direly needs our help. But, as soon as the individual becomes a group, the whole situation and reaction changes. In a group, people either believe that someone else will, or already is doing something to fix the situation; or, because they notice no one else helping, they believe the situation isn't as bad as it appears.

In other words, in a group people think that the responsibilty of the situation automatically falls to someone else.  So "the less is not that no one called despite thirty-eight people heard her scream; it's that no one called because  thirty-eight people heard her scream." (Gladwell, 28).

I found this fascinating once it had been explained because it got me to thinking, thinking about how I would have reacted in one of the experimental situations. When I started thinking about it, I wouldn't have been apart of that 31% of people that rushed to help. I would have assumed that someone else in the group was more qualified to help then I myself would have been. That's a question that this book makes you ask yourself. Would you be apart of that 31%, or, in all honesty, would you be like me and contribute to the bystander problem.

The Bystander Effect in action...

And these are only two things discussed in the first two chapters, amongst other concepts, principles and issues. 

Anyways, as I am sure you can tell, The Tipping Point brings up a ton of subject matter in a new light that, I for one would have never considered or thought of. Gladwell, yet again writes a book with compelling concepts and ideas that will definitely keep you hooked and teach you a thing or two.

I for one can't wait to continue reading and see what else Gladwell will argue or define in a new way. So, if you'll excuse me, I am going to start up on chapter three.