Summarizing The Tipping Point Intro. & ch. 1

In the book "The Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell raises an issue on how epidemics come about and make big changes in the world. In the introduction of the book Malcolm looked at common trends such as the fashion trend Hush Puppies. He calmed that this trend grow from a few people. This Hush Puppies example is one that he would say falls into the law of the few. The law of the few is simple a law that starts one or two people can cause a trend to excel or spread. Another law that he hits on is the stickiness factor, which looks at how common sayings or quotes tend to cause a trend to spread. In chapter one he looked mainly at the Winston cigarette slogan. He said that if you were to go up to a person and say, "Winston taste good." That they would finish it by saying, "like a cigarette should."(pg. 25). This showed just how a phrase could make a product excel. The last law that Gladwell hit on was the power of context, which he clams that humans are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they may seem. The best example that Gladwell gave on this law was the issue of the 1964 stabbing of Kitty Genovese. This situation showed that even though thirty-eight people saw the stabbing no one bothered to pick up the phone and report it, because each person thought that the other or another person would report it. Showing that the environment that we are in does play on how we react to things. Overall the introduction and chapter one looked at how epidemics come about and make these changes in the world.