The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Recently I've gotten to read quite an interesting book:
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
The book is basically trying to come up with a theory of how "epidemics" start, weather it's in fashion, crime, or diseases. The interesting thing I found about this book, was not really the theory of the so called "Tipping Point" though. The idea didn't seem so revolutionary, and although the author makes some good arguments, there were also many others which could be disputed. The main problems I found with many of the ideas is the lack of conclusive evidence, in many cases, I felt that the outcome of certain theories were not very conclusive. In any case, that's really besides the point.
The interesting part about this book, I felt, was actually the many experiments about sociologists and anthropologists which were mentioned within the book. One theory I found interesting was related to crime, a theory so called, "Broken Window" theory. The theory basically states that crime is a result of chaos, and chaos is the result of the environment. It bascially says, for example that if there is a "broken window" left unfixed, people walk by seeing the window, and over time start to assume that since the window isn't fixed, that no body cares enough to fix it. This is the supposed start of choas. Then, seeing as it seems no body cares, some people (basically those who are prone to commit crime) will start to break more windows, and if those were not fixed, more and more windows will be broken, and this will be the start of chos, of crime. The author then uses the example of the massive drop of the crime rates in New York, starting from the subway system, in which the head of the subway system started to clean up the system by repainting the cars from graffiti. This ofcause seemed absurt at the time, as the people question why the railway would bother spending so much man power, money and time in cleaning up the train bogies when people have nearly stopped using the subway because of the high rates of rape, murder, and armed robbery in the subway. Spend the money on more security the people demanded, and so on. This was the first of a series of steps to bring down the crime rate in the subways.
The part I felt that was interesting is that I would have agreed with those people if I was in the same situlation. I would probably be puzzled at why they would spend that much money on cleaning the trains instead of getting more police, security etc. It's very interesting, since it made me realize even more clearly, sometimes, how little I understand many things in life, and I question myself weather I have been right in condemning authoroies sometimes on their actions. Could it be that they knew something more? Well, at least this doesn't seem to work with most Thai authoroties, I'm afraid to say that I don't believe most of them do not have such insite though maybe a few do.
Another really interesting theory I found was about emotion being contagious. That is to say, that emotions are not only an expression of the inner feelings, but also can be passed on. Not only that, but how much certain acts or external words only can be passed on from on to a person. A good example is the following paragraph I quote from the book:
..."Have you ever thought about yawning for instance? Yawning is a suprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word "yawning" in the previous two sentences - and the two additional "yawns" in this sentence - a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I'm writing this I have yawned twice. If you're reading this in a public place and you've just yawned is now yawning too, and a good portion of the people watching the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever-widening circle.
Yawning is incredibly contagious. I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word "yawn." The people who yawned when they saw you yawn, meanwhile were infected by the site of you yawning - which is the second kind of contagion. They might have even yawned if they only heard you yawn, because yawning is also aurally contagious: if you play a audio tape of a yawn to a blind people, they'll yawn too. And finally, if you yawned as you read this, did the though cross your mind - however uncontiously and fleetingly - that you might be tired? I suspect that some of you did which means that yawns are also emotionally contagious.
The incredible thing about this is that when I was reading this, I yawned and I also had a fleeting though that I was tired. The author was right! Then later in the book the author goes on to mention about how experiments have shown that some people have the ability to infect others with emotions just by looking at others! I found this very interesting, along with a few other tidbits in the book. It's given me new found respect for sociologist and anthropologists. What about you? Did you yawn when you read the sentences?
The interesting part about this book, I felt, was actually the many experiments about sociologists and anthropologists which were mentioned within the book. One theory I found interesting was related to crime, a theory so called, "Broken Window" theory. The theory basically states that crime is a result of chaos, and chaos is the result of the environment. It bascially says, for example that if there is a "broken window" left unfixed, people walk by seeing the window, and over time start to assume that since the window isn't fixed, that no body cares enough to fix it. This is the supposed start of choas. Then, seeing as it seems no body cares, some people (basically those who are prone to commit crime) will start to break more windows, and if those were not fixed, more and more windows will be broken, and this will be the start of chos, of crime. The author then uses the example of the massive drop of the crime rates in New York, starting from the subway system, in which the head of the subway system started to clean up the system by repainting the cars from graffiti. This ofcause seemed absurt at the time, as the people question why the railway would bother spending so much man power, money and time in cleaning up the train bogies when people have nearly stopped using the subway because of the high rates of rape, murder, and armed robbery in the subway. Spend the money on more security the people demanded, and so on. This was the first of a series of steps to bring down the crime rate in the subways.
The part I felt that was interesting is that I would have agreed with those people if I was in the same situlation. I would probably be puzzled at why they would spend that much money on cleaning the trains instead of getting more police, security etc. It's very interesting, since it made me realize even more clearly, sometimes, how little I understand many things in life, and I question myself weather I have been right in condemning authoroies sometimes on their actions. Could it be that they knew something more? Well, at least this doesn't seem to work with most Thai authoroties, I'm afraid to say that I don't believe most of them do not have such insite though maybe a few do.
Another really interesting theory I found was about emotion being contagious. That is to say, that emotions are not only an expression of the inner feelings, but also can be passed on. Not only that, but how much certain acts or external words only can be passed on from on to a person. A good example is the following paragraph I quote from the book:
..."Have you ever thought about yawning for instance? Yawning is a suprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word "yawning" in the previous two sentences - and the two additional "yawns" in this sentence - a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I'm writing this I have yawned twice. If you're reading this in a public place and you've just yawned is now yawning too, and a good portion of the people watching the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever-widening circle.
Yawning is incredibly contagious. I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word "yawn." The people who yawned when they saw you yawn, meanwhile were infected by the site of you yawning - which is the second kind of contagion. They might have even yawned if they only heard you yawn, because yawning is also aurally contagious: if you play a audio tape of a yawn to a blind people, they'll yawn too. And finally, if you yawned as you read this, did the though cross your mind - however uncontiously and fleetingly - that you might be tired? I suspect that some of you did which means that yawns are also emotionally contagious.
The incredible thing about this is that when I was reading this, I yawned and I also had a fleeting though that I was tired. The author was right! Then later in the book the author goes on to mention about how experiments have shown that some people have the ability to infect others with emotions just by looking at others! I found this very interesting, along with a few other tidbits in the book. It's given me new found respect for sociologist and anthropologists. What about you? Did you yawn when you read the sentences?
posted by A_Neutron_Astray @ 11:36 PM
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