What do a sharp decline in crime, the fashion for suede shoes, a syphilis epidemic, and the popularity of Sesame Street all have in common? At first glance, nothing. But if you dig deeper, you can find a clear cause-and-effect relationship, thanks to which a single incident or phenomenon develops into a social epidemic . And in the book “The Tipping Point”, written by Canadian pop sociologist Malcolm Gladwell, the processes of the emergence and spread of social epidemics are examined in detail.
The law of force of circumstances
Regardless of whether it is the spread of an idea, a fashion, a disease or a model of behavior, every social epidemic has a set of mandatory components without which its emergence is impossible, namely:
Law of small numbers
- Stickiness factor
Each of the components will be discussed chinese overseas america database in more detail in the article.
Law of small numbers
If you’ve seen the movie “World War Z”, Brad Pitt spent the entire movie looking for patient zero. Well, with social epidemics, the process is the same – it all starts with one person who “infects” his environment , they “infect” theirs, and so on ad infinitum. This is the “Law of Few Numbers” , which includes people whom what is the new invoice system and why is it important? Malcolm Gladwell calls Mavens, Salesmen, and Connectors.
Patient Zero is the Expert, who is an “opinion leader” for his circle. His opinion is trusted, he is listened to. But he does not always have a crawler data large circle of contacts. This is what Unifiers are for – they have hundreds of established contacts. They can spread the word among thousands, using the power of connections. The Expert “infects” the Unifier, and the latter, in turn, diligently spreads the “virus”. Sometimes the Seller must step in – a person with an incredible talent for persuasion. He is the one who sells the car that the satisfied Expert drives, who then recommends it to all his friends, including the Unifier, which the whole world now drives.The emergence of a social epidemic of any kind depends to a great extent on the participation of people with a set of specific and rare communication skills.
And remember that:
Social change is so ambiguous and often inexplicable because it is in our nature to be ambiguous and inexplicable.
Translation into the language of the crowd is also very important . What catches the innovators, the crowd may not understand. Therefore, those same Experts, Connectors and Sellers must translate the content into the language of millions. But if you initially speak in the language of the crowd, then the innovators may not pay attention to you. It is important for you to first reach them, this “small number”, so that they themselves translate the idea and convey it to others.But despite all this, rumor remains a mysterious phenomenon. People constantly pass on information to each other. But only in rare cases does such an exchange trigger a rumor epidemic.
