The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
Chapter 5
The Power of Context (Part Two)
Janeli Ortiz
Armando Moreno
Humberto 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)
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
“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.
 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)
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?
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)
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:
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.
The End
Thank you for your attention
and participation