1. Chapter One: The Three Rules of Epidemics
“The three rules of the Tipping Point—the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context—offer a way of making sense of epidemics.” (Gladwell 29)
In The Tipping Point, Gladwell describes the Law of the Few as the fact that people with “a particular and rare set of social gifts” (Gladwell 33) are influential in social epidemics. Their special personality traits help ideas, trends, and social behaviors to “tip”, or become popular.
The Stickiness Factor is the factor that ideas need to “stick” in our minds. For example, a song is considered “sticky” if it gets stuck in your head. For an idea to reach a tipping point it must be interesting to the general public and it must be memorable. …show more content…
A salesman’s personality can be characterized by powers of persuasion and articulation. Gladwell describes salesmen as exuding energy, enthusiasm, charm, and likeability. (73) What makes salesmen so persuasive and influential is that they can draw others into their own conversational rhythms. This means that they find a way to gain influence over the rhythmic, physical aspect of the conversation and subconsciously affect you (your thoughts, opinions, and inclinations.) Practices that help establish conversational rhythm, according to Acton MBA, include subtly reflecting positive body language and speech. So for example, if the person you are having a conversation with rubs their nose, you should wait a few seconds (to be subtle) and then rub your own nose. To reflect their speech, you should “listen to their phrasing, language, and sentence structure, and try to recreate it in your own language patterns.” (“Conversational Rhythm”) An example of this is if they use the word “pop” to describe a carbonated drink. Even if you typically use the word “soda”, you should temporarily adopt that person’s language patterns to develop a conversational rhythm. Salesmen re known to do this, but they may not be aware of it. They are naturally persuasive and have an aptitude for subtle synchrony when it comes to body language in a conversation. This technique can be used in situations ranging from important interviews to everyday conversations, just to make yourself
“The three rules of the Tipping Point—the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context—offer a way of making sense of epidemics.” (Gladwell 29)
In The Tipping Point, Gladwell describes the Law of the Few as the fact that people with “a particular and rare set of social gifts” (Gladwell 33) are influential in social epidemics. Their special personality traits help ideas, trends, and social behaviors to “tip”, or become popular.
The Stickiness Factor is the factor that ideas need to “stick” in our minds. For example, a song is considered “sticky” if it gets stuck in your head. For an idea to reach a tipping point it must be interesting to the general public and it must be memorable. …show more content…
A salesman’s personality can be characterized by powers of persuasion and articulation. Gladwell describes salesmen as exuding energy, enthusiasm, charm, and likeability. (73) What makes salesmen so persuasive and influential is that they can draw others into their own conversational rhythms. This means that they find a way to gain influence over the rhythmic, physical aspect of the conversation and subconsciously affect you (your thoughts, opinions, and inclinations.) Practices that help establish conversational rhythm, according to Acton MBA, include subtly reflecting positive body language and speech. So for example, if the person you are having a conversation with rubs their nose, you should wait a few seconds (to be subtle) and then rub your own nose. To reflect their speech, you should “listen to their phrasing, language, and sentence structure, and try to recreate it in your own language patterns.” (“Conversational Rhythm”) An example of this is if they use the word “pop” to describe a carbonated drink. Even if you typically use the word “soda”, you should temporarily adopt that person’s language patterns to develop a conversational rhythm. Salesmen re known to do this, but they may not be aware of it. They are naturally persuasive and have an aptitude for subtle synchrony when it comes to body language in a conversation. This technique can be used in situations ranging from important interviews to everyday conversations, just to make yourself