How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Essay Example

Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference endeavors to demonstrate how apparent changes happen in society in a manner akin to how epidemics spread: they have the structure of viruses which, in short, can become contagious. Gladwell identifies this structure in all social phenomena, from, as he notes in his introduction, fashion and cultural trends to crime rates.

In Chapter 1 of his work, Gladwell offers something to the effect of a typology of what he terms “epidemics”, that is, an understanding of how they function. Gladwell argues for a threefold schematic of the phenomenon comprised of what he terms “the Law of the Few”, “the Stickiness Factor” and “the Power of Context.” “The Law of the Few” indicates that such epidemics are identifiable as such because they are somehow outliers, that which is anomalous to the society in question. Hence, for a fashion trend to take on the form of a contagious epidemic, the trend must clearly originate from the margins: if not, it would already exist as a part of the mainstream, as an established norm, and would not have the structure of an epidemic. Simultaneously, stickiness is a crucial term. This means there has to be something inherently qualitatively compelling about the epidemic in question to make it “stick”, otherwise it would not become an epidemic which is determined by extent of influence. The power of context is thus a crucial factor which works on the epidemic from an exterior perspective: a trend therefore must also say something to its times, for it to emerge as a trend in a particular time period.

All these factors provide a compelling diagnosis of how “epidemics” function. With these concepts, Gladwell gives the reader an intriguing account of fundamental social structures and phenomena.