Source: www.birst.com
As I’m writing this on my study table looking out the window, I’m reflecting on all that has happened in my life. I’m now in my sophomore years in med school, just halfway there. Just like any regular teenager, a medical student, my life is a routine. Most of the time, nothing was above average. One day, as I was scrolling down the net, reading I-don’t-remember-what, an advertisement plunges in. You know the ones that come in out of nowhere. It was an advertisement about a book called The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. Well, I decided to give it a try. After all, it was only for Rs 180, which is about RM 9.
The purpose of this article was to share a little bit on my experience with the book. “How does a book called The Tipping Point relate to areas of public health?” I asked myself. Only after I finished the book, I discovered it can make a difference, theoretically. Practically? I can never know for sure.
The Tipping Point is a book about social epidemics that touches on how ideas, trends and social behaviours spread through populations like a wildfire. Everyone knows that human beings are social beings and human association can have a great impact on almost anything and everything.
The book is separated into 8 comprehensible chapters. The Three Rules of Epidemics, The Law of The Few, The Stickiness Factor, The Power of Context (2 parts), 2 different case studies and a humble conclusion. Let’s start by flipping through the Three Rules of Epidemics. Well actually the three rules are the headings of the next chapters of the book, The Law of The Few, The Stickiness Factor and The Power of Context.
In The Law of The Few Gladwell mentioned that “The answer is that the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts”. He goes on by dividing these groups of people into what he called as Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. I ran across this idea once when scrolling down the news feed of Facebook. My friend posted a picture on which his short story was published in Utusan Malaysia. It hit only a few likes, mostly from his friends and acquaintances. But when it was re-posted by the Oh,Media! page, it hit almost 20 times more likes from the original page! The difference was so apparent. Why did some people succeed in getting people’s attention while some did not? Both were carrying the same piece of news: a short story published in Utusan Malaysia. What or who made the difference?
How can we relate Malcolm Gladwell’s Law of The Few into the case of public health and awareness? Like Gladwell explains in his book, we have the Connectors, the one who knew a lot of people and are active in a whole lot of different communities. For an example, if we want to get a Dengue awareness campaign going, it might be more effective if we could get the celebrities or the famous figures to participate in our campaigns. Get the kind of people who knows everyone and whom everyone knows e.g. famous bloggers and v-loggers.
Moving on to the next chapter, we have The Stickiness Factor. In a simpler term, it is the factor that made the message stick evidently and strongly in the minds of people. In Gladwell’s case, he studied the case of Sesame Street and Blues Clues. What made the Sesame Street and Blues Clues a successful educational virus was that every aspect of the TV show was tailored to make the programme stick in the minds of children. In making the message ‘stick’, the producer decided to make the message as simple as possible. Another important factor was to make the participants feel that they are involved in the process. In the case of Blues Clues, they made the show more interactive with the children. We can also do the same by making the people understand that they are also involved in making the campaign or project a success. For example, we should make people really feel that they are an important part in the war against Dengue. All we have to do is find the stickiness factor. Present the information in a simple package and with the right circumstances, it can become irresistible.
Finishing with the last rule of epidemics, The Power of The Context. This chapter discusses at length on how the context of the situation really matters. One argues that most of the times, how we respond to a particular situation depends on who we are. Gladwell’s argument was that this was not always the case. The context or the situation that we are placed in can play a different role on how we respond to the situation. Ever heard the term used in psychology; The Diffusion of Responsibility or The Bystander Effect?
“Diffusion of responsibility is a psychological phenomenon in which people are less likely to take action or feel a sense of responsibility in the presence of a large group of people. Essentially, in a large group of people, people may feel that individual responsibility to intervene is lessened because it is shared by all of the onlookers.”
-About.com on Psychology, the Diffusion of Responsibility-
The same goes on when we try to address the public health issues. Public health issues are social issues. People do not feel that they need to maintain a hygienic compound knowing that there are municipalities that will come and clean it for them. They would not clean up breeding areas because they know there are going to be mass fogging. This was always the case. In India, Malaysia and even elsewhere, people throw rubbish unethically thinking that there would always be someone else to clean it up for them. It has always been “I don’t want to get involved” and “Somebody else would do it” attitude.
Fortunately, the author has provided us with insights on how to tackle these issues. He gave an example on how a nurse by the name Georgia Sadler began a campaign to increase knowledge and awareness of diabetes and breast cancer in the African-American community of San Diego. Well, she started her campaign in churches around the city and it did not turn out to be the way she wanted it to be. She had to change it. But how? She decided to move the campaigns from the churches to beauty salons. She recruited the hairdressers. She changed the context. She went to a place where people are more receptive to messages. What she did was she changed the messenger and how the message is conveyed.
All in all, the book tells us to reflect on how small things can really make a big difference. As always, some things are easier said than done yet I wanted to share my experience with this book and I thought it is worth a read and it would be a whole lot of fun if we can implement the idea and make careful changes in our society.
The end.
Maryam Zakiah is one of The Malaysian Medical Gazette’s Young Columnists. Find out more about her at our Team page.
References.
- http://psychology.about.com/od/dindex/f/diffusion-of-responsibility.htm
- Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference ( New York : Abacus, 2010)