Malcolm Gladwell describes the "three rules of epidemics" (or the three "agents of change") in the tipping points of epidemics.
"The
Law of the Few", or, as Malcolm Gladwell states, "The success of any
kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of
people with a particular and rare set of social gifts".[3] According to
Malcolm Gladwell, economists call this the "80/20 Principle, which is
the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the 'work' will be
done by 20 percent of the participants".[4] (see Pareto Principle) These
people are described in the following ways:
Connectors, are the
people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in
the habit of making introductions. A connector is essentially the social
equivalent of a computer network hub. They usually know people across
an array of social, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and
make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different
circles. They are people who "link us up with the world...people with a
special gift for bringing the world together".[5] They are "a handful of
people with a truly extraordinary knack [... for] making friends and
acquaintances".[6] Malcolm Gladwell characterizes these individuals as
having social networks of over one hundred people. To illustrate, he
cites the following examples: the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
Milgram's experiments in the small world problem, the "Six Degrees of
Kevin Bacon" trivia game, Dallas businessman Roger Horchow, and
Chicagoan Lois Weisberg, a person who understands the concept of the
weak tie. Gladwell attributes the social success of Connectors to the
fact that "their ability to span many different worlds is a function of
something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity,
self-confidence, sociability, and energy".[7]
Mavens are
"information specialists", or "people we rely upon to connect us with
new information."[4] They accumulate knowledge, especially about the
marketplace, and know how to share it with others. Gladwell cites Mark
Alpert as a prototypical Maven who is "almost pathologically helpful",
further adding, "he can't help himself".[8] In this vein, Alpert himself
concedes, "A Maven is someone who wants to solve other people's
problems, generally by solving his own".[8] According to Gladwell,
Mavens start "word-of-mouth epidemics"[9] due to their knowledge, social
skills, and ability to communicate. As Malcolm Gladwell states, "Mavens
are really information brokers, sharing and trading what they
know".[10]
Salesmen are "persuaders", charismatic people with
powerful negotiation skills. They tend to have an indefinable trait that
goes beyond what they say, which makes others want to agree with them.
Malcolm Gladwell's examples include California businessman Tom Gau and
news anchor Peter Jennings, and he cites several studies about the
persuasive implications of non-verbal cues, including a headphone nod
study (conducted by Gary Wells of the University of Alberta and Richard
Petty of the University of Missouri) and William S. Condon's cultural
microrhythms study.
The specific content of a message that
renders its impact memorable. Popular children's television programs
such as Sesame Street and Blue's Clues pioneered the properties of the
stickiness factor, thus enhancing the effective retention of the
educational content in tandem with its entertainment value.
Human
behavior is sensitive to and strongly influenced by its environment. As
Malcolm Gladwell says, "Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and
circumstances of the times and places in which they occur".[11] For
example, "zero tolerance" efforts to combat minor crimes such as
fare-beating and vandalism on the New York subway led to a decline in
more violent crimes city-wide. Gladwell describes the bystander effect,
and explains how Dunbar's number plays into the tipping point, using
Rebecca Wells' novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, evangelist
John Wesley, and the high-tech firm W. L. Gore and Associates. Malcolm
Gladwell also discusses what he dubs the rule of 150, which states that
the maximum number of individuals in a society or group that someone can
have real social relationships with is 150.
Gladwell also
includes two chapters of case studies, situations in which tipping point
concepts were used in specific situations. These situations include the
athletic shoe company Airwalk, the diffusion model, how rumors are
spread, decreasing the spread of syphilis in Baltimore, teen suicide in
Micronesia, and teen smoking in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipp...
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