Creating Social Movements Using Lessons from the Tipping Point and Freakonomics

Introduction

Social movements in the past have been propagated by the need to see a change in society. Issues regarding current happenings or tragedies and unfair treatment by mainly political and administrative bodies form a baseline for social movements' agendas. There are different ways to encourage a social change to come up, and in this paper, the focus shall be on the use of lessons from the three rules of epidemics in the book, The Tipping Point, and fundamental principles in the book, Freakonomics, which would encourage the formation of social movements.

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The rules of epidemics from the tipping point include the law of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of context (Gladwell, 27). These rules offer a direction on techniques to use in making people change their behavior. The law of the few suggests the answer to begin a social movement first relies on finding exceptional people who have social connections, enthusiasm, and energy and whose personality can spread the word about an issue. The involvement of people who have certain unique social gifts can push a particular message across wide boards increasing the acceptance and goal of a social movement. This kind of people exists all around us. A critical factor in an epidemic is the nature of the messenger (Gladwell, 94). For instance, by associating a pair of shoes with a particular person like a celebrity increases the sales and adoption of that footwear. Gladwell (34), addresses this kind of messengers as connectors as they link the rest of the people with the globe who introduce us to social circles bringing the world together for a similar course.

The second rule is the stickiness factor its important in tipping an epidemic or mobilizing a social movement to ensure that a message makes the intended impact (Gladwell, 110). A lot of time is spent looking into how messages can be made contagious, and how they can reach more people but the hardest part is ensuring that the audience retains all information in their memory. The stickiness factor suggests there are particular ways of making a contagious message memorable. A social movement always has a message it needs to pass across. They intend to bring change to society or create a new venture to assist them in life. Therefore, making relative changes to their presentation and structuring of information can make a huge difference in the volume of the impact created. In previous social movements such as Black Lives Matter, they were fighting against racial discrimination against African Americans, especially by the police. Their issues ranged from unfair treatment of African Americans in the United States to indiscriminate killing and imprisonment of the African Americans. Their message was contagious as they had a well-planned out a way of ensuring they were heard and many people came out to support the movement.

Gladwell suggests there are simple methods to promote stickiness in a message. Paying careful attention to formality and structure in the material can enhance stickiness (Gladwell, 110). The law of the few states that there are exceptional individuals in the world who are capable of beginning epidemics all one needs to do is locate them. The rule of stickiness is similar since packaging information in the right way under exact circumstances can make it irresistible all one needs is to find it (Gladwell, 132). In the process of making an idea stick, one is trying to transform the audience in a minimal but essential aspect. This can be done by taking advantage of the influence some people have such as people with excellent personal social connections. Additionally, the context of communication can be modified to make the message memorable that it sticks to people's memories while compelling them to act. The smallest and majorly unexpected factors can influence people's behaviors. Both the law of the few and the stickiness factor make spontaneous sense (Gladwell, 166).

The surroundings or context influence epidemics meaning the conditions and circumstances of environments can have a significant impact on the outcome of a social movement. The third rule according to Gladwell, the power of context suggests that people are strikingly sensitive to their surroundings than portrayed (Gladwell, 166). For instance, those people who commit crimes usually have something additional that pushes them towards violence aside from for example being psychologically troubled. The power of context explains that one's tipping point can be simple as daily signs of disorder (Gladwell, 167). A lot of people and issues in our society are advocated to be as a product or result of the environment one is exposed to which plays a huge role in determining who we are and how we behave. Social movements should draw their inspiration from the environment their society is in. Issues addressed should be ones that almost all members can relate to and therefore, they will bring mass attraction from the people.

Moreover, the power of context works enormously in groups. In a case study, psychologists observed that people make different decisions when in a group compared to when they are alone. Once people are in a group, they are susceptible to influence from social norms and peer pressure which play a crucial role in blooming the beginnings of an epidemic (Gladwell, 171). A social movement can easily succeed by working as a group that skillfully uses the group power to spread new and contagious ideas (Gladwell, 182).

Freakonomics by Steven and Stephen expose a specific worldview on a few fundamental ideologies or principles that shed light on the successful launch of a social movement. They introduce a principle regarding incentives and how they are a cornerstone to modern life. Understanding incentives are critical to solving all kinds of riddles (Steven and Stephen, 11). Incentives in economics are based on how individuals get what they need or want especially when others are interested in the same item. Proper incentive schemes are ideal to solve an issue provided they be designed adequately. Incentives act as levers or keys that offer high power for change. Human beings will always respond to incentives whether positive or negative from the beginning of life (Steven and Stephen, 16). For instance, as a positive incentive, if a worker receives an increase in salary they will increase their work quality and output, and as a negative incentive if the same worker fails to receive their wages the will be driven to go on strike, and in the meantime, their work output and quality will decrease. Incentives are a way of urging people to do more of good than bad. The state of things in the society can be a powerful thing to push for a social movement.

Conclusion

On numerous occasions, the incentives are negative as people wish to change the state of the community from bad to good. At the onset of a social movement, the forefront should offer reasonable and substantial incentives to the people to increase their magnitude and influence in the community. Essentially, they will succeed in their mission as people will become optimistic about their ideas. Incentives do no come organically as someone is required to come up with them (Steven and Stephen, 17). Consequently, incentives can help develop a social movement in which our society successfully understands a social concern and changes behaviors and attitudes associated with it.

Works Cited

Gladwell, Malcolm. The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Little, Brown, 2006.

Steven D., Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything." Human Ecology Review 14.1 (2007): 113.