{"id":4827,"date":"2019-12-03T09:05:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T13:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=4827"},"modified":"2022-03-11T16:49:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T20:49:04","slug":"tipping-point-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/tipping-point-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Powerful Tipping Point Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In The Tipping Point<\/a><\/em>, Malcolm Gladwell explains how social epidemics \u2014 spreading ideas, messages, behaviors, and products \u2014 function like viruses, growing gradually until they reach a critical mass (the tipping point) and explode. What are some good tipping-point examples?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll look at two powerful tipping-point examples from Gladwell’s book and discuss how epidemics occur in both the medical and social worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Is the Tipping Point?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we look at our tipping point examples, we need to know what the tipping point is. It’s based on the idea of medical epidemics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epidemics don\u2019t build gradually and steadily; they grow and reach a boiling point or critical mass, at which point they explode and turn into an epidemic. That threshold is called the tipping point.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be hard to wrap our head around the notion that drastic change happens at one particular point because we tend to think that significant changes occur in a steady progression (e.g. a river doesn\u2019t flood instantaneously when a storm hits; the water steadily rises over hours of heavy rain). But the tipping point is a critical moment when minor change makes all the difference<\/strong> (e.g. the moment the water crests the river bank). 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of snow: The difference between 34 and 31 degrees Fahrenheit doesn\u2019t feel much colder than the difference between 37 and 34 degrees. But when that same three-degree drop happens at the tipping point \u2014 32 degrees \u2014 rain becomes snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principles of the Tipping Point Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As we’ll see, our tipping point examples exemplify three principles of the tipping point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book focuses on how to push ideas or products to a tipping point in order to create a social epidemic<\/a>. There are three factors that can be adjusted to tip an idea to a social epidemic: the messenger, the message itself, or the context of the message.<\/strong> You can turn your ordinary idea into an epidemic by altering one or more of these aspects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n