Today we believe that our convictions of our hearts are more influential than our surroundings, but this is not the case. In a chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, he introduces the theory, “Power of Context”. He argues that it is the small features of context that can produce a potentially criminal environment and that changing those little problems can make a huge difference. Gladwell shows readers that our inner psychological states are important in influencing a person to tip towards atypical behavior, but seemingly insignificant features of context are just as important if not more. Gladwell proves his theory through real life situations, experiments, and psychological theories.
Gladwell pulls the reader in by starting the chapter with the story of Bernie Goetz, a man who shot four youths on a New York City subway train. Gladwell chose to tell the story of Bernie Goetz to open the door to the theory, “Power of Context”, and to help readers believe it was a valid theory. Though many people could write off the story of Bernie Goetz saying it was a fluke, Gladwell shows that Goetz fit the criteria of a potential criminal perfectly. Goetz had a violent background which brought him close to the tipping point, but not quite. Gladwell shows that it was the “dimly lit platform, surrounded on all sides by dark, damp, graffiti-covered walls”(287) that pushed Goetz over the edge, and that it wasn’t only his violent past. All the components, such as the combination of Goetz’ violent past and the environment of the subway system, are shown in the case of Bernie Goetz and that is why Gladwell chose to include it in his chapter.
Ending with the story of Bernie Goetz led Gladwell to his next topic, the transformation of the New York City Subway System. This topic introduced the “Broken Windows” theory, saying that one thing such as a broken window may produce a criminal action out of a person due to a chain reaction. “Broken Windows” showed how to reduce crime and the results were a systematic change in New York City. The city painted over the graffiti at night so that it would never see the light of day. The transformation of the subway system helped back up the story of Goetz by showing it was small things. Due to small changes in New York City, crime was on the decline in the 1990s. “Murders dropped by two-thirds. Felonies were cut in half.”, and by the end of the decade “there were 75 percent fewer felonies then there had been at the decade’s start.”(Gladwell 288). These numbers show how drastically the seemingly insignificant things can make a big impact on a society. The numbers also help prove the validity of Gladwell’s theory by showing it isn’t just one man, but also an entire system wide change in New York City that can be changed by seemingly insignificant things.
Even with two solid real life examples, Gladwell still needed to fill holes in his theory. The next hole was filled with “Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment”, this showed critics that even a group of perfectly healthy and normal college students can change under certain circumstances. Zimbardo was surprised when “The guards, some of whom had previously identified themselves as pacifists, fell quickly into the role of hard-bitten disciplinarians.”(Gladwell 295). By allowing people to compare this experiment with a real life situation, it began to show that nearly anybody is capable of behaving atypically. Gladwell contrasted this experiment with Goetz and the subway system to solidify the theory by showing two very different scenarios.
Gladwell is well aware that people will still try to find a way to disregard “The Power of Context”, and that is where he brings in the “Princeton Seminarian Study”. This study targets the noble people of our society, the people who are seen as above all common people. In the Princeton study they had two groups of seminarians who had to go to a meeting, they told half the group they were late, and the other half they had time to spare. Of the group without time, 10 percent stopped to help the man in the alley, and the group with time, only 63 percent stopped to help the man. This study suggests that “the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behavior.”(Gladwell 299). Gladwell states that “we need to remember that small changes in context can be just as important in tipping epidemics, even though that fact appears to violate some of our most deeply held assumptions about human nature.”(299). By using this study in his chapter he shows that features of context such as having extra time or not can make even the people with the highest morals in our society can act abnormal, even aberrant.
All of the topics and examples throughout Gladwell’s chapter tie together to bring us to the last topic, the Fundamental Attribution Error. The Fundamental Attribution Error, also known as FAE, is “ fancy way of saying that when it comes to interpreting other people’s behavior, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimates the importance of the situation and context.”(Gladwell 296). The FAE shows that humans put to much blame on character when something is atypical. The “Power of Context” states that context is more important than character, but does not disregard characteristics. An example Gladwell gives readers is one where there was a dimly lit basketball court and a well lit one, when people were asked to judge which team was better they chose the team playing in the well lit gym. Gladwell put in the FAE to show readers that there is an actual study proving that “we will always reach for a ‘dispositional’ explanation for events, as opposed to a contextual explanation.” (296). The FAE allows readers to see that it is a proven theory and it also helps create validity for Gladwell’s theory, “Power of Context”.
The “Power of Context” theory states that it is the small and seemingly insignificant problems that are more important than characteristic traits, although character and personality are not unimportant. Gladwell chose to use all the examples in this chapter of his book, The Tipping Point, because they all tie together in the end. The FAE shows that all those examples aren’t so different from each other. Readers also begin to see that they too can change little things in their lives to make a difference. Gladwell wants people to know that features of context are the tipping points in a persons atypical or aberrant behavior, no matter who that person may be.
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Your blog is overwhelming. Try adding spaces between paragraphs to make it more easily read.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
My Creative Writing
Gotcha. There we go!
Use the reply button, lol.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
My Creative Writing
Still learning.. here I did it... haha :]
;-) Fast learner
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
My Creative Writing
I'm going to check out that book! I live in the hood, and it sounds like it might be useful for grassroots neighborhood activism.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
It is! This chapter especially, I found it very intriguing and I learned a lot.
Après la pluie le beau temps. ♥