Theory of Knowledge

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 5

2006-08-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

The same concept that applied to the suicide closely applies to the problem of teen smoking. The United States has spent million of dollars on the campaign to show teenagers the damage they are doing to themselves by smoking. However, that is not the problem. Despite all the advertising, smoking has risen 73% in teenagers since 1988.

Through extensive investigation, researchers came to the conclusion that teenagers do not think that smoking is cool; it is smokers that are cool. Smokers all have the same general personality: rebellious, unruly, etc. It is this attitude that is attractive for teenagers, not the smoking. However, smoking becomes sticky as the smoker does, and teenagers will eventually have their first cigarette. Here, Gladwell explains that there are different levels of smokers: those that are addicted, chippers, and those that don’t smoke at all. Chippers are those that can smoke regularly, but are not addicted. He explains that people have different tolerant levels of nicotine. Those that turn out to be addicts have a very high level of tolerance. This is why statistics show that children whose parents smoke have a better chance of being addicted in the future. It is not because of the bad role model idea that has been put into our heads so far, but because of genes. These children are more likely to have a high level of nicotine tolerance, so when they try their first cigarette, they will eventually get addicted. Whether their parents smoked or not, the child would most likely have tried that first cigarette anyway.

Therefore, to attack smoking we don’t have to end it all at once. To attack the Senders is not the way to go. Just by changing a tiny detail, like the amount of nicotine present in every cigarette, people can still smoke up to about 20 cigarettes a day, still satisfy their desire for nicotine, AND not be considered addicted any longer.

This chapter showed to what extent a teenager desires to be considered “cool”. That desire is so strong that it alters their reasoning skills. They know that attempted suicide will most likely end up in death. But, at that moment, being cool is most important. The same principle applies for smoking. College students were asked how many years off of their lives they thought they were taking off by smoking from when they were 21 on. The average answer was 9. The real answer is 6 to 7. Although they actually overestimate the risks they are taking, they continue to be “cool”.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 4

2006-08-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

The rest of the book focuses on actual cases where Tipping Points and the Laws of Tipping Points can be seen.

Airwalk was a new shoe that was targeted for skateboarders. It was a great success, but they wanted more. They wanted the shoe to be popular for the mainstream kids as well. Gladwell explains how Airwalk turned into the 3^rd leading shoe brand in the country, behind Adidas and Nike. He shows that there are many different types of people for marketers to consider when trying to sell a product. He concentrated on the Innovators and the Early Majority. The Innovators are those that want to try something new and be different and the Early Majority only take risks when they see the success of others beforehand. The problem with new products is that it is very difficult to cross this line. Typically, the innovators take an idea, tweak it a little to fit their own needs, and this is soon taken on by the mainstream population. What Airwalk did was use this concept in their advertising. A scout would find Innovators around the country, and find out when the next idea to hit mainstream would be. Airwalk used this knowledge to base their advertisements around these new ideas, and then place an Airwalk shoe in the middle of it.

I found it interesting how the advertising worked. Unlike the Innovators, the mainstreamers did not buy the shoe because they liked the shoe. They were essentially fooled into thinking it was cool just because the advertisement for it contained something else that they considered cool. The fact that the mind can be fooled so easily can be disturbing. Just by changing the smallest details of an advertisement for a product can change whether we purchase it or not (while the product remained the same the whole time).

In the next chapter, Gladwell discusses how actions such as suicide and smoking can both be considered contagious. He discusses Micronesia in the 1980s. Before this time, there was about 1 suicide every 12 years. But now, suicide was becoming something regular, mostly in young boys. Experts trying to solve the problem came to the conclusion that suicide was contagious. Some boys that failed later stated that they were just ‘trying it out’ not really wanting to die. They realized that most of those who attempted had never tried to or even mentioned killing themselves in the past.

What they realized was happening was that when one person committed suicide, it basically gave permission for anyone else in a similar situation to do the same, and the statistics showed this was true.

The Tipping Point - by Malcolm Gladwell 3

2006-08-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

In the next two chapters, Gladwell discusses the third rule of an epidemic, the Power of Context.

The Power of Context (Part 1) – Gladwell explains that the Power of Context theory states that epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur. He begins with the example of crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, crime in New York City was unbelievable. Gladwell claims that crime can be considered an epidemic. It is contagious, as it can start with a broken window and spread to an entire community. This is where he discusses the Broken Window Theory as well. Experts claim that when a window is broken and neglected for a period of time, individuals may consider this neighborhood better for crime. They believe that if those living here will not even put enough effort into fixing a window, they would never put enough effort into catching criminals. For those in office, this was a major factor to be considered in NYC. Instead of worrying about the more major problems, they concentrated on clearing up the grafitti and other “broken windows” in order to send a message to others that this was not a place to mess with. As a result of the slight change in environment, crime rate in New York City dropped 2/3 from a high in 1990.

Both the Broken Window and Power of Context Theories are radical statements. Most people label criminals as those who are poor, fatherless, and “buffeted by racism and don’t have the same commitment to social norms as those from healthy, middle-class families.” These theories are claiming the opposite: that the criminal is actually more sensitive to his or her environment. “He or she is alert to all kinds of cues and prompted to commit crimes based on his or her perception of the world around him.” As you can see, it is not necessarily entirely based on one’s personality as too whether or not they would commit a crime, but on the exact circumstance they are placed in and their perception of it.

In general terms, the Power of Context is saying that our inner states are the results of our outer states. Basically, people can vary according to different situations they are placed in. He claims that our perception of the personality of others is often much distorted. We tend to choose one characteristic of someone to label them by, where they may act in the complete opposite manner in a different situation. “As humans, we tend to overestimate the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimate the importance of the situation and context”. This idea can have serious consequences to other human beings. We make our daily and routine decisions based on what we “label” other individuals. But what if our perception and reasoning were wrong? What if the person we labeled as honest and trustworthy turned out to be a liar? Your quick judgment and perception failed you as you quickly trusted this individual with important information.

The Power of Context (Part 2) – In this chapter, Gladwell expands on the idea of the importance of the environment for a working individual and successful company. He explains that humans have an intellectual capacity – a maximum number of something we can experience or distinguish before getting confused. After research, experts came to the ‘magic’ number 150 as the maximum number of people the average human can have social interactions with and feel relatively comfortable around each of them. The employees at Gore Company did just that. They stuck to the 150 rule, realizing that after that, things get chaotic. The associates agree that they not only know their peers for their obvious personalities (kind, outgoing, etc), but also for their abilities and interests in the job. This way, a level of trust is kept among the workers, where little individual groups are avoided, and efficiency is at its height. As you can see, the environment in which we are brought up, or live in now, has a heavy influence on how we will act later on. Gladwell points out that an individual who grew up in a bad family but a good neighborhood is less likely to commit a crime in the future than one who grew up in a good family but a bad neighborhood.

The Tipping Point - by Malcolm Gladwell 2

2006-08-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

In the next two chapters, Malcolm Gladwell describes the ‘law of the few’ and the ‘stickiness factor’.

The law of the few: Here, Gladwell claims that for an epidemic, trend, or even an important message to be spread out, there must be that one person that works as a ‘connector’. This person adapts the epidemic or trend, or carries the message. He or she must have a great influence over a large amount of people, so that the new idea will “tip”. Gladwell gives one example through the story of Paul Revere. He was sent to relay the message that the British were coming during the Revolutionary War. However, he was not alone in the task. Other men such as William Dawes were also summoned. So why hasn’t anyone heard of William Dawes? Gladwell argues that he did not have the personality of a connector, whereas Paul Revere did. William Dawes found that no one believed his claim, while Paul Revere became famous for his efforts.

Gladwell also brings up the Ways of Knowing in this chapter, especially concentrating on emotion. He says that, when two individuals communicate, it is not only ideas that are being passed back and forth, and it is not only the language that is important, but also emotions. “If you show people pictures of a smiling face or a frowning face, they’ll smile or frown back…” Elaine Hatfield and John Cacioppo, two psychologists, studied this further. They agreed that mimicry of emotions is a way of showing empathy towards the other individual. They give the example that if I were hit my thumb with a hammer, another person is likely to grimace in pain. However, they also claimed that emotions may be passed on from one person to another. This claim puts an entirely different twist on the way we normally think of emotions. Most would describe them as an expression of what we are feeling inside; if I’m sad, I frown, if I’m happy, I smile. But these psychologists are stating that it happens the opposite way as well. If I am happy, I smile, which makes you smile, which makes you happy. Along with the idea of the “law of the few” there are only certain people who would have a large emotional impact on others, being able to inflict their emotions on others easily. These people would be more likely to be the ‘connectors’ to tip an epidemic or trend.

The stickiness factor: In this chapter, Gladwell claims that although the person relaying the message is very important, it is equally important for the message to be something ‘sticky’. This chapter concentrates heavily on language and perception in making something ‘stick’. He claims that it is not necessarily the content that matters, but the presentation of this content. One common example that Gladwell concentrates on is preschool education television. He introduces the chapter explaining that Sesame Street was the first attempt to educate preschoolers through television, and there was much skepticism about the idea. Many experts didn’t believe that television could grab and keep the attention of young children for an entire hour. Nevertheless, the producers created the show. They included puppets and real adults, songs and games, all to teach the children to count, say the alphabet and learn to read. Soon after the creation of the first five episodes, the creators tested the show on preschoolers in Philadelphia with horrible results. They kept the attention of the children for less than 50% of the time and the children were unable to answer questions on the content of the show later on. They realized, however, that a few changes in the language and perception could change the results dramatically. By including less distractions and limiting the time period of each segment, attention span would increase. But, an even more interesting analysis of Sesame Street was performed by the creators of Blues Clues. These individuals used many concepts from the Sesame Street, changing them very slightly. For example, they changed some of the language of the episodes. Instead of including clever puns and jokes (mostly geared towards adults) they made the language strictly geared toward preschoolers (very straightforward). Also, they played on the emotion of the children. By making the show more interactive, the children would get excited and feel happy when they figured out a puzzle or game and were able to ‘help Steve’. Overall, with these few minor adjustments, the show killed the ratings of Sesame Street within the first few weeks. As Gladwell points out, it took only a few minor adjustments to make the show much stickier.

"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

2006-07-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

In the first chapter of The Tipping Point the author Malcolm Gladwell describes the three basics rules of Epidemics. He introduces the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. He states that these are the keys for an epidemic to spread out or for a product to become a fashion. He explains that the Law of the Few says that it is always a few amount of people that cause an epidemic to spread. For example, the AIDS virus was able to spread after directly infecting only about 20 people. He continues to explain the Stickiness Factor. This states that in order for something to “tip” the few people that begin it must have several connections with other people. Finally, he discusses the last rule of epidemics, The Power of Context. This states that humans are more sensitive to their environment than they may seem. He says “It isn’t just prosaic factors like the weather that influence behavior. Even the smallest and subtlest and most unexpected of factors can affect the way we act.

In the rest of the book, Gladwell says that he will discuss applications of these three rules of epidemics on things such as teenage smoking and the rise of a bestseller to explain how they reached their “tipping point”. This idea can also be applied to the marketing strategies of businesses. The goal of marketing is to reach a business, good or service to the most amount of people as possible. The three rules of epidemics show a way of approaching that goal. It is not necessary to reach all of the public at once. It is about reaching the few, “right” people. In other words, it is more important to strongly influence a few people who have a lot of contacts and connections than to slightly influence a greater number of people at once. I am interested to see how many different situations Gladwell can connect the idea of a “tipping point” and the rules of epidemics.

Science and Philosophy

2006-05-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

Philosopher Alexander Rosenberg states that philosophy fills in the blanks that science is not able to fill. In our TOK class we discuss many of the problems of knowledge, including those in both the natural and human sciences. Unfortunately, scientists today don’t have the tools necessary, and therefore the ability to answer every question.

Fortunately, with the improvements in technology, science has had many improvements and has been able to get closer to answers than it ever was before. However, there are many philosophical answers that have often contradicted those of science. In the past, the trend seems to be that philosophical answers fill in the blank for what science is still unable to. Once technology improves and a closer scientific answer is formed, the philosophical answer seems to be discarded almost immediately.

This does not directly imply that science will ultimately find the answers for all questions. However, it implies that the scientific answer is usually considered the most credible, and as long as technology can improve and science can get closer to the true answers, the philosophical answers may continue to be disregarded, whether rightly so or not.

Art and Philosophy

2006-03-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

When I first looked at the picture I was unsure of what it truly was. I was a bit confused at first. My first interpretation was that it was a picture of the beach seen through a doorway. Once I looked at it again, I noticed something completely differently. There was a canvas that was painted similarly to the beach. This canvas is on an easel and seems to perfectly flow into the image of the beach. This was hard to notice since the canvas flowed into the door with the beach behind it.

This picture demonstrates how a same image could be perceived in different manners. Perception is one of the forms of knowledge that influence what we consider to be true. This picture demonstrates that how there could be different interpretations depending on how you are viewing the picture.

TOK

2005-12-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

This is my first post.