Context Matters: Situational factors—timing, mood, and environment—impact whether a trend takes off.

Influencers’ Role: Certain individuals, known as influencers, play outsized roles in spreading ideas or behaviors.

Complex Contagions: Some trends require multiple exposures, not just a single contact, to take root.

Feedback Loops: Positive or negative feedback amplifies outcomes, accelerating the tipping effect.

Beyond Initial Hype: Tipping points mark beginnings, not ends—long-term success depends on lasting appeal.

Social Proof: When we see others embrace a trend, we’re more likely to believe in its value or validity.

Network Power: Small changes in social networks can trigger tipping points that ripple across systems.

Perceived Value: If something appears valuable or exclusive, it has a greater chance to trend.

Role of Early Adopters: Pioneers bring awareness but require support from mainstream users to sustain impact.

Critical Mass: A phenomenon tips once enough people adopt it, sparking rapid and widespread adoption.

Viral Architecture: How networks are structured affects whether something spreads successfully.

Threshold Effect: People often need to see others adopt something before they’re comfortable jumping in.

Emotional Resonance: Messages that evoke emotions are more likely to go viral, as they stick with people.

Weak Ties Matter: Loose connections are crucial in transmitting trends, as they bridge different social circles.

Conformity Pressures: People conform when they see majority behavior, accelerating the reach of trends.

Discover how small shifts and social dynamics trigger powerful trends in Revenge of the Tipping Point.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Most Anticipated in: AARP | Associated Press | Time Magazine | Oprah Daily | Chicago Tribune | Literary Hub | Publishers Weekly | Publishers Lunch Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.   Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

books

Books

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. Gladwell has been included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers.

MALCOLM GLADWELL

Similar ideas

The Meso Level

Good times

Understand the informal network