Power Of Environment

The Power of the Environment on Behavior When a crime is committed, most people would think that the actions of that criminal were a result of a psychological issue. What they don’t immediately pick up on is another possible reason why the act of violence was committed, and that is the individual’s environment. People make choices, sometimes irrational ones, as a result of environmental observations. Ethan Watters concludes in his essay “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” that society has the power to shape one’s beliefs. Consequently in Malcolm Gladwell’s essay “The Power of Context,” he provides evidence that a past experience in a person’s life can shape their behavior when put into a similar situation. All it takes is a minor detail …show more content…
Ethan Watters emphasizes how advertisements can alter people’s beliefs through his explanation of a “mega-marketing campaign.” In order to successfully change people’s perception of an idea, the environment must be the drive and changing factor which people will follow. Gladwell adds onto this theory when he mentions the work of David Gunn; his effort to reclaim the subway trains and keep them from being vandalized was his way of sending a message to the vandals themselves (Gladwell 153). Gladwell’s “power of context” theory and Watter’s idea of a “mega-marketing campaign” are very similar. People who spread graffiti in public areas work hard towards the final product. Because their “artwork” requires a few days to complete, painting over their initial work the first time sends out an ambiguous message. The true power of context in that case, the sight of a never-before seen clean public transportation system, tells the vandals that vandalism will not be accepted and is now being enforced. By fixing the graffiti problem and keeping the trains well maintained, people will stop getting the impression that it is alright to vandalize them. The overall cultural change in that case would urge people to follow the new rule. As they see newly cleaned trains and their work constantly being washed off or …show more content…
People’s perception of reality is usually a result of observing how others around them perceive it. Watter’s argument is centered around people’s perception within a society being derived from the perception of others. Gladwell extends this conclusion with a real life example of crime and its tendency to spread using the Broken Windows Theory. The Broken Windows theory states that if there is a broken window, people walking by will think no one cares, getting the idea that it is okay to vandalize it (Gladwell 152). It was mentioned on several occasions in Gladwell’s essay that the train cars in New York City were covered in graffiti and there was rarely an effort to clean them up due to the high chances of them being vandalized again. Going along the lines of the theory, when people realize that nothing is being done to avoid the vandalism from happening, they believe it is alright to take advantage of that control they think they have. The same goes for other crimes in the city. The environment is a direct factor influencing the behavior of criminals. Gladwell states in his essay, “The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment” (152). The feature of the environment in this case was the disgusting conditions of the train cars which were already covered in graffiti which prompted people to engage in