The Tipping PointMalcolm Gladwell

Chapter 5 The Power of Context (Part Two)

Janeli OrtizArmando MorenoHumberto Murúa

Fast food corporations taking over the food industry.

“The spread of any new and contagious ideology also has a lot to do with the skillful use of group power” (Gladwell 172)

MAIN IDEA

Gladwell strongly defends that groups make epidemics successful

Do you agree?

Why? Or

Why not?

Gladwell points out that our opinions are affected when we are in a group

Gladwell’s Example:

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, “Ya-Ya was being talked about and read in groups, [therefore] the book it self became that much stickier” (Gladwell 173)

“Psychologist tell us much the same thing: that when people are asked to consider evidence or make decisions in a group, they come to very different conclusions than when they were asked the same question by themselves” (Gladwell, 171)

- Ethos argument, because it is according to psychology, a science that studies human behavior.

Discussion question:How can groups make us buy more into new ideas making them more and more popular? How does Ya-Ya prove a point?

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There are 150 people in everyone’s life who impact your thinking more than the rest of humanity . The anthropologist Robin Dunbar found that “the number 150 pops up again.” (Gladwell 179) “ he looks at 21 different hunter-gatherer societies for which we have solid historical evidence, from the Walbiti of Australia to the Tauade of New Guinea to the Ammassalik of Greenland to the Ona of Tierra del Fuego and found that the average number of people in their villages was 148.1” (Gladwell 180)

Ethos argument because Dunbar is an Oxford anthropologist, so he is a reliable source

Logos too, because if it happened in other humans before then it demonstrates that this number has to do with our social relationships

“Peer presure is much more powerful than a boss”(Gladwell 186)

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Gladwell uses as an example a very successful incorporation that has a very peculiar organization: W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. Gore organizes all its plants by 150 employees. There is no managers or bosses in any plant, everyone works by peer pressure. In this incorporation, “orders can be implemented and unruly behavior controlled in the basis of personal loyalties and direct man-to-man contacts” (Gladwell 186)

This type of argument is pathos since it shows how strongly the “owner” relies on the motivation of his workers to have the company moving forward.

Discussion question:

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Is peer pressure better than a boss when everyone wants to achieve a common goal?

Through chapter five, Gladwell argued that groups make ideas more “sticky”. Compare and contrast groups and individuals in terms of spreading new ideas and making them more popular. Conclude what is more efficient and explain why one is better than the other.

Essay Prompt:

The EndThank you for your attention

and participation

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