126-497: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is the debut book by Malcolm Gladwell , first published by Little, Brown in 2000. Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." The book seeks to explain and describe the "mysterious" sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states: "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do." The examples of such changes in his book include
252-458: A Guardian editorial in 2002 condemned antisemitism and defended the paper's right to criticise the policies and actions of the Israeli government, arguing that those who view such criticism as inherently anti-Jewish are mistaken. Harriet Sherwood, then The Guardian 's foreign editor, later its Jerusalem correspondent, has also denied that The Guardian has an anti-Israel bias, saying that
378-526: A "strikingly different way of looking at the world". The term " tipping point " comes from the moment in an epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass and begins to spread at a much higher rate. Gladwell's theories of crime were heavily influenced by the " broken windows theory " of policing, and Gladwell is credited for packaging and popularizing the theory in a way that was implementable in New York City. Gladwell's theoretical implementation bears
504-421: A 27-year-old British Muslim and journalism trainee from Yorkshire . Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir , an Islamist group, and had published a number of articles on their website. According to the newspaper, it did not know that Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir when he applied to become a trainee, though several staff members were informed of this once he started at the paper. The Home Office said that
630-658: A 5:15 mile. He had his first child, a daughter, in 2022. In 2005, Time named Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. In 2007, he received the American Sociological Association 's first Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues. The same year, he received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo. In 2011, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada ,
756-581: A Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Gladwell's eighth book, Revenge of the Tipping Point was released in October 2024. The book is a sequel to his best seller The Tipping Point, which was released in 2000. The book discusses social epidemics and tipping points, this time with
882-690: A bachelor's degree in history from Trinity College of the University of Toronto , in 1984. Gladwell decided to pursue advertising as a career after college. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at conservative magazine The American Spectator and moved to Indiana . He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News , a conservative magazine owned by Sun Myung Moon 's Unification Church . In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post , where he worked until 1996. In
1008-426: A daily circulation of 105,134. The newspaper is available online; it lists UK, US (founded in 2011), Australian (founded in 2013), European, and International editions, and its website has sections for World, Europe, US, Americas, Asia, Australia, Middle East, Africa, New Zealand , Inequality, and Global development. The paper's readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion, and
1134-510: A growing fire. There is no knowing what kind of explosion will follow." On 24 August 1959, The Manchester Guardian changed its name to The Guardian . This change reflected the growing prominence of national and international affairs in the newspaper. In September 1961, The Guardian , which had previously only been published in Manchester , began to be printed in London. Nesta Roberts
1260-452: A humorous column by Charlie Brooker in its entertainment guide, the final sentence of which was viewed by some as a call for violence against U.S. President George W. Bush ; after a controversy, Brooker and the paper issued an apology, saying the "closing comments were intended as an ironic joke, not as a call to action". Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings , The Guardian published an article on its comment pages by Dilpazier Aslam ,
1386-474: A nation having slavery as its basis". There was a comment that "an effort had been made in a leading article of the Manchester Guardian to deter the working men from assembling together for such a purpose". The newspaper reported all this and published their letter to President Lincoln while complaining that "the chief occupation, if not the chief object of the meeting, seems to have been to abuse
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#17327914413971512-508: A particular and rare set of social gifts." According to Gladwell, economists call this the "80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the 'work' will be done by 20 percent of the participants" (see Pareto Principle ). These people are described in the following ways: The Stickiness Factor refers to the specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable. Popular children's television programs such as Sesame Street and Blue's Clues pioneered
1638-503: A particular incident, he was apprehended by three police officers while walking in downtown Manhattan because his curly hair matched the profile of a rapist, despite the fact the suspect looked nothing like him otherwise. Gladwell's The Tipping Point (2000) and Blink (2005) were international bestsellers. The Tipping Point sold more than two million copies in the United States. Blink sold equally well. As of November 2008,
1764-542: A personal elucidation of the 10,000-hour rule he popularized in Outliers , Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years—exactly that long." When Gladwell started at The New Yorker in 1996, he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration". His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write
1890-456: A piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying: "[I]t was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $ 8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $ 100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $ 100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $ 8—that's much tougher." Gladwell gained popularity with two New Yorker articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt". These two pieces would become
2016-469: A revised edition of Tipping Point is in the works...resulting in Revenge of the Tipping Point . Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell CM (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast Revisionist History and co-founder of
2142-692: A role in the Balfour Declaration . In 1948 The Manchester Guardian was a supporter of the new State of Israel. Ownership of the paper passed in June 1936 to the Scott Trust (named after the last owner, John Russell Scott , who was the first chairman of the Trust). This move ensured the paper's independence. From 1930 to 1967, a special archival copy of all the daily newspapers was preserved in 700 zinc cases. These were found in 1988 whilst
2268-467: A scalpel over a dotted shape of the Gaza Strip on his stomach. The caption read: "Residents of Gaza, get out now." Due to what has been seen by some as a reference to Shakespeare's Shylock 's "pound of flesh", it prompted accusations that it was antisemitic. Bell said that he was inspired by the 1960s "Johnson's Scar" cartoon by David Levine of U.S. president Lyndon B Johnson within the context of
2394-615: A series of acts abhorrent to every true notion of constitutional right and human liberty", adding: "it is doubtless to be regretted that he had not the opportunity of vindicating his good intentions". According to Martin Kettle , writing for The Guardian in February 2011: " The Guardian had always hated slavery. But it doubted the Union hated slavery to the same degree. It argued that the Union had always tacitly condoned slavery by shielding
2520-420: A speech "and the hate-gospellers of his entourage" that it encouraged readers to vote Conservative in the 1951 general election and remove Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government. The Manchester Guardian strongly opposed military intervention during the 1956 Suez Crisis : "The Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt is an act of folly, without justification in any terms but brief expediency. It pours petrol on
2646-460: A striking resemblance to the " stop-and-frisk " policies of the NYPD. However, in the decade and a half since its publication, The Tipping Point and Gladwell have both come under fire for the tenuous link between "broken windows" and New York City's drop in violent crime. During a 2013 interview with BBC journalist Jon Ronson for The Culture Show , Gladwell admitted that he was "too in love with
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#17327914413972772-522: A talk about innovation for a group of entrepreneurs in Los Angeles a while back, sponsored by Bank of America. They liked the talk, and asked me to give the same talk at two more small business events—in Dallas and yesterday in D.C. That's the extent of it. No different from any other speaking gig. I haven't been asked to do anything else and imagine that's it. In 2012, CBS 's 60 Minutes attributed
2898-479: A three-city speaking tour put on by Bank of America . The program was titled "Bank of America Small Business Speaker Series: A Conversation with Malcolm Gladwell". Paul Starobin, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review , said the engagement's "entire point seemed to be to forge a public link between a tarnished brand (the bank), and a winning one (a journalist often described in profiles as
3024-701: A total of 49 episodes. Gladwell is a Christian. His family attended Above Bar Church in Southampton, U.K., and later Gale Presbyterian in Elmira when they moved to Canada. His parents and siblings are part of the Mennonite community in Southwestern Ontario. Gladwell wandered away from his Christian roots when he moved to New York, only to rediscover his faith during the writing of David and Goliath and his encounter with Wilma Derksen regarding
3150-513: A wanton barrage of stones, steel bars, and other missiles. That still does not justify opening fire so freely." After the events of Bloody Sunday, John Widgery, Baron Widgery was appointed the head of a tribunal to investigate the killings. The resulting tribunal, known as the Widgery Tribunal , largely exonerated the actions of the soldiers involved in the incident. The Guardian published an article on 20 April 1972 which supported
3276-590: A writer. Gladwell's father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father, a professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Waterloo , allowed his son to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries. In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. He graduated with
3402-547: Is a step to which there is no obvious alternative." In 1983, the paper was at the centre of a controversy surrounding documents regarding the stationing of cruise missiles in Britain that were leaked to The Guardian by civil servant Sarah Tisdall . The paper eventually complied with a court order to hand over the documents to the authorities, which resulted in a six-month prison sentence for Tisdall, though she served only four. "I still blame myself", said Peter Preston , who
3528-497: Is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong." A writer in The Independent accused Gladwell of posing "obvious" insights. The Register has accused Gladwell of making arguments by weak analogy and commented Gladwell has an "aversion for fact", adding: "Gladwell has made a career out of handing simple, vacuous truths to people and dressing them up with flowery language and an impressionistic take on
3654-549: Is as close to a singular talent as exists today" and Outliers "leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward". Ian Sample wrote in The Guardian : "Brought together, the pieces form a dazzling record of Gladwell's art. There is depth to his research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive." Gladwell's critics have described him as prone to oversimplification. The New Republic called
3780-611: Is cases where they overlap". The initial inspiration for his first book, The Tipping Point , which was published in 2000, came from the sudden drop of crime in New York City . He wanted the book to have a broader appeal than just crime, however, and sought to explain similar phenomena through the lens of epidemiology . While Gladwell was a reporter for The Washington Post , he covered the AIDS epidemic. He began to take note of "how strange epidemics were", saying epidemiologists have
3906-507: Is not a less one; and we would not seek the abolition even of the former through the imminent hazard of the latter". It suggested that the United States should compensate slave-owners for freeing slaves and called on President Franklin Pierce to resolve the 1856 "civil war", the Sacking of Lawrence due to pro-slavery laws imposed by Congress. In 1860, The Observer quoted a report that
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4032-465: Is that Mr Lloyd George is fighting to enfranchise seven million women and the militants are smashing unoffending people's windows and breaking up benevolent societies' meetings in a desperate effort to prevent him." Scott thought the Suffragettes' "courage and devotion" was "worthy of a better cause and saner leadership". It has been argued that Scott's criticism reflected a widespread disdain, at
4158-567: Is the only guest to have been featured as a headliner at every OZY Fest festival —an annual music and ideas festival produced by OZY Media —other than OZY co-founder and CEO Carlos Watson . Gladwell has also appeared on several television shows for OZY Media, including the Carlos Watson Show (YouTube) and Third Rail With OZY (PBS). Gladwell has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss 's book Tools of Titans . Gladwell
4284-436: Is wrong to state that Tel Aviv – the country's financial and diplomatic centre – is the capital. The style guide has been amended accordingly." On 11 August 2014 the print edition of The Guardian published a pro-Israeli advocacy advert during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict featuring Elie Wiesel , headed by the words "Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it's Hamas' turn." The Times had decided against running
4410-510: The San Francisco Chronicle 's list of the 50 best non-fiction books of 2008. Fortune described The Tipping Point as "a fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way". The Daily Telegraph called it "a wonderfully offbeat study of that little-understood phenomenon, the social epidemic". Reviewing Blink , The Baltimore Sun dubbed Gladwell "the most original American journalist since
4536-561: The Sunday Times , so phone-hacking will surely be to The Guardian : a defining moment in its history. In recent decades, The Guardian has been accused of biased criticism of Israeli government policy and of bias against the Palestinians. In December 2003, columnist Julie Burchill cited "striking bias against the state of Israel" as one of the reasons she left the paper for The Times . Responding to these accusations,
4662-638: The FTSE 100 companies. Internal documents relating to Barclays Bank 's tax avoidance were removed from The Guardian website after Barclays obtained a gagging order . The newspaper played a pivotal role in exposing the depth of the News of the World phone hacking affair . The Economist 's Intelligent Life magazine opined that: As Watergate is to the Washington Post , and thalidomide to
4788-468: The Getty kouros and psychologist John Gottman 's research on the likelihood of divorce in married couples . Gladwell's hair was the inspiration for Blink . He stated that once he allowed his hair to get longer, he started to get speeding tickets all the time, an oddity considering that he had never gotten one before and that he started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. In
4914-521: The Hôtel Ritz in Paris, which would have amounted to accepting a bribe on Aitken's part. Aitken publicly stated that he would fight with "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play". The court case proceeded, and in 1997 The Guardian produced evidence that Aitken's claim of his wife paying for the hotel stay was untrue. In 1999, Aitken was jailed for perjury and perverting
5040-574: The Kosovo War in 1998–1999. The Guardian stated that "the only honourable course for Europe and America is to use military force". Mary Kaldor 's piece was headlined "Bombs away! But to save civilians, we must get in some soldiers too." In the early 2000s, The Guardian challenged the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Treason Felony Act 1848 . In October 2004, The Guardian published
5166-500: The Manchester Guardian ". Lincoln replied to the letter thanking the workers for their "sublime Christian heroism" and American ships delivered relief supplies to Britain. The newspaper reported the shock to the community of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, concluding that "[t]he parting of his family with the dying President is too sad for description", but in what from today's perspective looks an ill-judged editorial wrote that "[o]f his rule we can never speak except as
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5292-665: The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), The Guardian called for the British Armed Forces to be deployed to the region, arguing that their deployment would "present a more disinterested face of law and order" than the RUC." On 30 January 1972, troops from the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment opened fire on a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march, killing fourteen people in an event that would come to be known as Bloody Sunday . In response to
5418-503: The Scott Trust Limited . The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into
5544-765: The Union blockade was causing suffering in British towns . Some including Liverpool supported the Confederacy as did "current opinion in all classes" in London. On 31 December 1862, cotton workers held a meeting at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester which resolved "its detestation of negro slavery in America, and of the attempt of the rebellious Southern slave-holders to organise on the great American continent
5670-576: The Vietnam War . In August 2004, for the US presidential election , the daily G2 supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County , Ohio, an average-sized county in a swing state . Editor Ian Katz bought a voter list from the county for $ 25 and asked readers to write to people listed as undecided in the election, giving them an impression of the international view and
5796-456: The Act would encourage emancipation in other slave-owning nations to avoid "imminent risk of a violent and bloody termination." However, the newspaper argued against restricting trade with countries that had not yet abolished slavery. Complex tensions developed in the United States. When the abolitionist George Thompson toured, the newspaper said that "[s]lavery is a monstrous evil, but civil war
5922-423: The Confederacy to self-determination. It criticised Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation for not freeing all American slaves. On 10 October 1862, it wrote: "It is impossible to cast any reflections upon a man so evidently sincere and well-intentioned as Mr Lincoln but it is also impossible not to feel that it was an evil day both for America and the world, when he was chosen President of the United States". By then,
6048-464: The Gladwellian genre. Gladwell has provided blurbs for "scores of book covers", leading The New York Times to ask, "Is it possible that Mr. Gladwell has been spreading the love a bit too thinly?" Gladwell, who said he did not know how many blurbs he had written, acknowledged, "The more blurbs you give, the lower the value of the blurb. It's the tragedy of the commons ." Gladwell is host of
6174-521: The Holy City of Jerusalem" and calling on all member states with diplomatic missions in the city to withdraw. The UN has reaffirmed this position on several occasions, and almost every country now has its embassy in Tel Aviv. While it was therefore right to issue a correction to make clear Israel's designation of Jerusalem as its capital is not recognised by the international community, we accept that it
6300-570: The PCC retracted its original ruling, leading to the newspaper's acknowledgement that it was wrong to call Tel Aviv Israel's capital. The Guardian later clarified: "In 1980, the Israeli Knesset enacted a law designating the city of Jerusalem, including East Jerusalem, as the country's capital. In response, the UN security council issued resolution 478, censuring the "change in character and status of
6426-726: The Soviet Embassy and had taken benefits from the KGB on overseas visits. Gott resigned from his post. Gordievsky commented on the newspaper: "The KGB loved The Guardian . It was deemed highly susceptible to penetration." In 1995, both the Granada Television programme World in Action and The Guardian were sued for libel by the then cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken , for their allegation that Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed had paid for Aitken and his wife to stay at
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#17327914413976552-502: The Ya-Ya Sisterhood , evangelist John Wesley , and the high-tech firm W. L. Gore and Associates . Dunbar's number is the maximum number of individuals in a society or group that someone can have real social relationships with, which Gladwell dubs the "rule of 150." Gladwell also includes two chapters of case studies, situations in which tipping point concepts were used in specific situations. These situations include
6678-476: The actions of the police department and " Fixing Broken Windows " (as claimed in The Tipping Point ). In Freakonomics , Levitt attributes the decrease in crime to two primary factors: 1) a drastic increase in the number of police officers trained and deployed on the streets and hiring Raymond W. Kelly as police commissioner (thanks to the efforts of former mayor David Dinkins ) and 2) a decrease in
6804-464: The ad, although it had already appeared in major American newspapers. One week later, Chris Elliott expressed the opinion that the newspaper should have rejected the language used in the advert and should have negotiated with the advertiser on this matter. In October 2023, The Guardian stated it would not renew the contract of cartoonist Steve Bell after he submitted a cartoon featuring Netanyahu, with his shirt open, wearing boxing gloves and holding
6930-439: The aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. The Tipping Point was named as one of the best books of the decade by The A.V. Club , The Guardian , and The Times . It was also Barnes & Noble 's fifth-best-selling non-fiction book of the decade. Blink was named to Fast Company 's list of
7056-846: The athletic shoe company Airwalk , the diffusion model, how rumors are spread, decreasing the spread of syphilis in Baltimore , teen suicide in Micronesia , and teen smoking in the United States. The book received a 77% from The Lit Review based on three critic reviews. The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Daily Telegraph review under "Love It" and Times , Sunday Telegraph , and Observer reviews under "Pretty Good" and Guardian review under "Ok". Gladwell received an estimated US$ 1–1.5 million advance for The Tipping Point , which sold 1.7 million copies by 2006. In
7182-658: The basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point , for which he received a $ 1 million advance. He continues to write for The New Yorker . Gladwell also served as a contributing editor for Grantland , a sports journalism website founded by former ESPN columnist Bill Simmons . In a July 2002 article in The New Yorker , Gladwell introduced the concept of the "talent myth" that companies and organizations, in his view, incorrectly follow. This work examines different managerial and administrative techniques that companies, both winners and losers, have used. He states that
7308-408: The best business books of 2005. It was also number 5 on Amazon customers' favourite books of 2005, named to The Christian Science Monitor 's best non-fiction books of 2005, and in the top 50 of Amazon customers' favourite books of the decade. Outliers was a number 1 New York Times bestseller for 11 straight weeks and was Time 's number 10 non-fiction book of 2008 as well as named to
7434-404: The broken-windows notion". He went on to say that he was "so enamored by the metaphorical simplicity of that idea that I overstated its importance". After The Tipping Point, Gladwell published Blink in 2005. The book explains how the human unconscious interprets events or cues as well as how past experiences can lead people to make informed decisions very rapidly. Gladwell uses examples like
7560-406: The chain was approximately six links). However, when he examined the pathways taken, he found that "hubs" (highly connected people) were not crucial. Only 5% of the e-mail messages had passed through one of the hubs. This casts doubt on Gladwell's assertion that specific types of people are responsible for bringing about large levels of change. Watts pointed out that if it were as simple as finding
7686-574: The company. In subsequent years, however, The Guardian has hired various commentators on US affairs including Ana Marie Cox , Michael Wolff , Naomi Wolf , Glenn Greenwald and George W. Bush's former speechwriter Josh Treviño . Treviño's first blog post was an apology for a controversial tweet posted in June 2011 over the second Gaza flotilla, the controversy which had been revived by the appointment. Guardian US launched in September 2011, led by editor-in-chief Janine Gibson , which replaced
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#17327914413977812-467: The conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur." For example, " zero tolerance " efforts to combat minor crimes such as farebeating and vandalism of the New York subway led to a decline in more violent crimes citywide. Gladwell describes the bystander effect , and explains how Dunbar's number plays into the tipping point, using Rebecca Wells ' novel Divine Secrets of
7938-634: The continuing "cruelty and injustice" to slaves in the West Indies long after the abolition of the slave trade with the Slave Trade Act 1807 wanted fairness to the interests and claims both of the planters and of their oppressed slaves. It welcomed the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 and accepted the "increased compensation" to the planters as the "guilt of slavery attaches far more to the nation" rather than individuals. Success of
8064-497: The course of justice . In May 1998, a series of Guardian investigations exposed the wholesale fabrication of a much-garlanded ITV documentary The Connection , produced by Carlton Television. The documentary purported to film an undiscovered route by which heroin was smuggled into the United Kingdom from Colombia. An internal inquiry at Carlton found that The Guardian ' s allegations were in large part correct and
8190-475: The death of her child. Gladwell was a national class runner and an Ontario High School ( Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations – OFSAA) champion. He was among Canada's fastest teenagers at 1500 metres , running 4:14 at the age of 13 and 4:05 when aged 14. At university, Gladwell ran 1500 metres in 3:55. In 2014, at the age of 51, he ran a 4:54 at the Fifth Avenue Mile . At 57 he ran
8316-490: The diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and ... support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures". In 1825, the paper merged with the British Volunteer and was known as The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer until 1828. The working-class Manchester and Salford Advertiser called The Manchester Guardian "the foul prostitute and dirty parasite of
8442-494: The epitome of cool)". An article by Melissa Bell of The Washington Post posed the question: "Malcolm Gladwell: Bank of America's new spokesman?" Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery said Gladwell's job for Bank of America had "terrible ethical optics". However, Gladwell says he was unaware that Bank of America was "bragging about his speaking engagements" until the Atlantic Wire emailed him. Gladwell explained: I did
8568-589: The existence of the surveillance program PRISM after knowledge of it was leaked to the paper by the whistleblower and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden . In 2016, The Guardian led an investigation into the Panama Papers , exposing then–Prime Minister David Cameron 's links to offshore bank accounts . It has been named "newspaper of the year" four times at the annual British Press Awards : most recently in 2014, for its reporting on government surveillance. The Manchester Guardian
8694-594: The few") and its unpredictable elements is based on the 1967 small-world experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram . Milgram distributed letters to 160 students in Nebraska, with instructions that they be sent to a stockbroker in Boston (not personally known to them) by passing the letters to anyone else that they believed to be socially closer to the target. The study found that it took an average of six links to deliver each letter. Of particular interest to Gladwell
8820-492: The final chapter of Outliers, "impervious to all forms of critical thinking" and said Gladwell believes "a perfect anecdote proves a fatuous rule". Gladwell has also been criticized for his emphasis on anecdotal evidence over research to support his conclusions. Maureen Tkacik and Steven Pinker have challenged the integrity of Gladwell's approach. Even while praising Gladwell's writing style and content, Pinker summed up Gladwell as "a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates
8946-402: The group's "ultimate aim is the establishment of an Islamic state (Caliphate), according to Hizb ut-Tahrir via non-violent means". The Guardian asked Aslam to resign his membership of the group and, when he did not do so, terminated his employment. In early 2009, The Guardian started a tax investigation into a number of major UK companies, including publishing a database of the tax paid by
9072-481: The hazards of statistical reasoning", while accusing him of "cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false dichotomies" in his book Outliers . Referencing a Gladwell reporting mistake in which Gladwell refers to " eigenvalue " as "Igon Value", Pinker criticizes his lack of expertise: "I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer's education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he
9198-425: The importance of voting against President George W. Bush. Katz admitted later that he did not believe Democrats who warned that the campaign would benefit Bush and not opponent John Kerry . The newspaper scrapped "Operation Clark County" on 21 October 2004 after first publishing a column of responses—nearly all of them outraged—to the campaign under the headline "Dear Limey assholes". Some commentators suggested that
9324-460: The incident, The Guardian argued that "Neither side can escape condemnation... The organizers of the demonstration, Miss Bernadette Devlin among them, deliberately challenged the ban on marches. They knew that stone throwing and sniping could not be prevented, and that the IRA might use the crowd as a shield ." The Guardian further stated that "It is certainly true that the army cordons had endured
9450-442: The individuals that can disseminate information prior to a marketing campaign, advertising agencies would presumably have a far higher success rate than they do. He also stated that Gladwell's theory does not square with much of his research into human social dynamics performed in the last ten years. Economist Steven Levitt and Gladwell have a running dispute about whether the fall in New York City's crime rate can be attributed to
9576-404: The ladder, since they are more likely to take more credit for achievements and take less blame for failure. He states both that narcissists make the worst managers and that the system of rewarding "stars" eventually worsens a company's position. Gladwell states that the most successful long-term companies are those who reward experience above all else and require greater time for promotions. With
9702-488: The language and footnoting this change. The Guardian ' s style guide section referred to Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel in 2012. In 2012, media watchdog HonestReporting filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) after The Guardian ran a correction apologizing for "wrongly" having called Jerusalem as Israel's capital. After an initial ruling supporting The Guardian ,
9828-560: The library. Traditionally affiliated with the centrist to centre-left Liberal Party , and with a northern, non-conformist circulation base, the paper earned a national reputation and the respect of the left during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). George Orwell wrote in Homage to Catalonia (1938): "Of our larger papers, the Manchester Guardian is the only one that leaves me with an increased respect for its honesty". With
9954-478: The mill-owners' champions had the upper hand. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper, and all of the Little Circle wrote articles for the new paper. The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would "zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty ... warmly advocate the cause of Reform ... endeavour to assist in
10080-624: The misconception seems to be that management and executives are all too ready to classify employees without ample performance records and thus make hasty decisions. Many companies believe in disproportionately rewarding "stars" over other employees with bonuses and promotions. However, with the quick rise of inexperienced workers with little in-depth performance review, promotions are often incorrectly made, putting employees into positions they should not have and keeping other, more experienced employees from rising. He also points out that under this system, narcissistic personality types are more likely to climb
10206-478: The most-read of the UK's "quality newsbrands", including digital editions; other "quality" brands included The Times , The Daily Telegraph , The Independent , and the i . While The Guardian ' s print circulation is in decline, the report indicated that news from The Guardian , including that reported online, reaches more than 23 million UK adults each month. Chief among the notable " scoops " obtained by
10332-676: The newly elected president Abraham Lincoln was opposed to abolition of slavery. On 13 May 1861, shortly after the start of the American Civil War , the Manchester Guardian portrayed the Northern states as primarily imposing a burdensome trade monopoly on the Confederate States , arguing that if the South was freed to have direct trade with Europe, "the day would not be distant when slavery itself would cease". Therefore,
10458-514: The newspaper asked "Why should the South be prevented from freeing itself from slavery?" This hopeful view was also held by the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone . There was division in Britain over the Civil War, even within political parties. The Manchester Guardian had also been conflicted. It had supported other independence movements and felt it should also support the rights of
10584-583: The newspaper's archives were deposited at the University of Manchester 's John Rylands University Library , on the Oxford Road campus. The first case was opened and found to contain the newspapers issued in August 1930 in pristine condition. The zinc cases had been made each month by the newspaper's plumber and stored for posterity. The other 699 cases were not opened and were all returned to storage at The Guardian ' s garage, owing to shortage of space at
10710-540: The number of unwanted children made possible by Roe v. Wade , causing crime to drop nationally in all major cities—"[e]ven in Los Angeles , a city notorious for bad policing". And although psychologist Steven Pinker argues the second factor relies on tenuous links, recent evidence seems to uphold the likelihood of a significant causal link. In October 2023, in an interview with Adam Grant released on Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History , Gladwell revealed that
10836-455: The occupation of the agents of the Union is gone. They live on strife ... ." In March 2023, an academic review commissioned by the Scott Trust determined that John Edward Taylor and nine of his eleven backers had links to the Atlantic slave trade through their interests in Manchester's textile industry. The newspaper opposed slavery and supported free trade . An 1823 leading article on
10962-610: The paper aims to cover all viewpoints in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict . On 6 November 2011, Chris Elliott, The Guardian ' s readers' editor, wrote that " Guardian reporters, writers and editors must be more vigilant about the language they use when writing about Jews or Israel", citing recent cases where The Guardian received complaints regarding language chosen to describe Jews or Israel. Elliott noted that, over nine months, he upheld complaints regarding language in certain articles that were seen as anti-Semitic, revising
11088-535: The paper from the estate of Taylor's son in 1907. Under Scott, the paper's moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting William Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886, and opposing the Second Boer War against popular opinion. Scott supported the movement for women's suffrage , but was critical of any tactics by the suffragettes that involved direct action : "The really ludicrous position
11214-523: The paper was the 2011 News International phone-hacking scandal —and in particular the hacking of the murdered English teenager Milly Dowler 's phone. The investigation led to the closure of the News of the World , the UK's best-selling Sunday newspaper and one of the highest-circulation newspapers in history. In June 2013, The Guardian broke news of the secret collection by the Obama administration of Verizon telephone records, and subsequently revealed
11340-438: The podcast Revisionist History , initially produced through Panoply Media and now through Gladwell's own podcast company. It began in 2016 and has aired seven 10-episode seasons. Each episode begins with an inquiry about a person, event, or idea, and proceeds to question the received wisdom about the subject. Gladwell was recruited to create a podcast by Jacob Weisberg , editor-in-chief of The Slate Group , which also includes
11466-567: The podcast company Pushkin Industries . Gladwell's writings often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences, such as sociology and psychology , and make frequent and extended use of academic work. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011. Gladwell was born in Fareham , Hampshire , England . His mother Joyce (née Nation) Gladwell, is a Jamaican psychotherapist . His father, Graham Gladwell,
11592-548: The podcast network Panoply Media. In September 2018, Gladwell announced he was co-founding a podcast company, later named Pushkin Industries , with Weisberg. About this decision, Gladwell told the Los Angeles Times : "There is a certain kind of whimsy and emotionality that can only be captured on audio." He also has a music podcast with Bruce Headlam and Rick Rubin , titled Broken Record where they interview musicians. It has two seasons, 2018–2019 and 2020 with
11718-646: The pro-Liberal News Chronicle , the Labour -supporting Daily Herald , the Communist Party 's Daily Worker and several Sunday and weekly papers, it supported the Republican government against General Francisco Franco 's insurgent nationalists. The paper's then editor, A. P. Wadsworth , so loathed Labour's left-wing champion Aneurin Bevan , who had made a reference to getting rid of "Tory Vermin" in
11844-484: The project and hire a staff of American reporters and web editors. The site featured news from The Guardian that was relevant to an American audience: coverage of US news and the Middle East, for example. Tomasky stepped down from his position as editor of Guardian America in February 2009, ceding editing and planning duties to other US and London staff. He retained his position as a columnist and blogger, taking
11970-441: The properties of the stickiness factor, thus enhancing effective retention of educational content as well as entertainment value. Gladwell states, "Kids don't watch when they are stimulated and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused" (Gladwell, p. 102). Human behavior is sensitive to and strongly influenced by its environment. Gladwell explains: "Epidemics are sensitive to
12096-476: The public's dislike of the campaign contributed to Bush's victory in Clark County. In 2007, the paper launched Guardian America , an attempt to capitalise on its large online readership in the United States, which at the time stood at more than 5.9 million. The company hired former American Prospect editor, New York magazine columnist and New York Review of Books writer Michael Tomasky to head
12222-508: The public's trust of specific titles online, The Guardian scored highest for digital-content news, with 84% of readers agreeing that they "trust what [they] see in it". A December 2018 report of a poll by the Publishers Audience Measurement Company stated that the paper's print edition was found to be the most trusted in the UK in the period from October 2017 to September 2018. It was also reported to be
12348-477: The radical reformers, writing: "They have appealed not to the reason but the passions and the suffering of their abused and credulous fellow-countrymen, from whose ill-requited industry they extort for themselves the means of a plentiful and comfortable existence. They do not toil, neither do they spin, but they live better than those that do." When the government closed down the Manchester Observer ,
12474-592: The release of The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War in April 2021, Gladwell has had seven books published. When asked for the process behind his writing, he said: "I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for
12600-455: The rise in popularity and sales of Hush Puppies shoes in the mid-1990s and the steep drop in New York City 's crime rate after 1990. Gladwell describes the "three rules of epidemics" (or the three "agents of change") in the tipping points of epidemics. "The Law of the Few" is, as Gladwell states: "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with
12726-408: The same thing—strangers misunderstanding each other." It challenges the assumptions we are programmed to make when encountering strangers, and the potentially dangerous consequences of misreading people we do not know. Gladwell's seventh book, The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War , was released in April 2021. The book weaves together the stories of
12852-538: The scientific method." In that regard, The New Republic has called him "America's Best-Paid Fairy-Tale Writer". His approach was satirized by the online site "The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator". In 2005, Gladwell commanded a $ 45,000 speaking fee. In 2008, he was making "about 30 speeches a year—most for tens of thousands of dollars, some for free", according to a profile in New York magazine. In 2011, he gave three talks to groups of small businessmen as part of
12978-580: The second highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada . He has received honorary degrees from the University of Waterloo (2007) and the University of Toronto (2011). Gladwell was a featured storyteller for the Moth podcast. He told a story about a well-intentioned wedding toast for a young man and his friends that went wrong. Gladwell was featured in General Motors "EVerybody in." campaign. Gladwell
13104-502: The southern slave states from the condemnation they deserved. It was critical of Lincoln's emancipation proclamation for stopping short of a full repudiation of slavery throughout the US. And it chastised the president for being so willing to negotiate with the south, with slavery one of the issues still on the table." C. P. Scott made the newspaper nationally recognised. He was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought
13230-471: The structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders . It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main newsprint sections have been published in tabloid format . As of July 2021 , its print edition had
13356-431: The term " Guardian reader" is used to imply a stereotype of a person with modern liberal , left-wing or " politically correct " views. Frequent typographical errors during the age of manual typesetting led Private Eye magazine to dub the paper the "Grauniad" in the 1970s, a nickname still occasionally used by the editors for self-mockery. In an Ipsos MORI research poll in September 2018 designed to interrogate
13482-456: The then industry regulator, the ITC, punished Carlton with a record £2 million fine for multiple breaches of the UK's broadcasting codes. The scandal led to an impassioned debate about the accuracy of documentary production. Later in June 1998, The Guardian revealed further fabrications in another Carlton documentary from the same director. The paper supported NATO 's military intervention in
13608-455: The time, for those women who "transgressed the gender expectations of Edwardian society ". Scott commissioned J. M. Synge and his friend Jack Yeats to produce articles and drawings documenting the social conditions of the west of Ireland; these pieces were published in 1911 in the collection Travels in Wicklow, West Kerry and Connemara . Scott's friendship with Chaim Weizmann played
13734-553: The title editor-at-large. In October 2009, the company abandoned the Guardian America homepage, instead directing users to a US news index page on the main Guardian website. The following month, the company laid off six American employees, including a reporter, a multimedia producer and four web editors. The move came as Guardian News and Media opted to reconsider its US strategy amid a huge effort to cut costs across
13860-576: The trend of American parents " redshirting " their five-year-olds (postponing entrance into kindergarten to give them an advantage) to a section in Gladwell's Outliers . Sociology professor Shayne Lee referenced Outliers in a CNN editorial commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. 's birthday. Lee discussed the strategic timing of King's ascent from a "Gladwellian perspective". Gladwell gives credit to Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross for inventing
13986-477: The tribunal and its findings, arguing that "Widgery's report is not one-sided". In response to the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland, The Guardian argued that "Internment without trial is hateful, repressive and undemocratic. In the existing Irish situation, most regrettably, it is also inevitable... To remove the ringleaders, in the hope that the atmosphere might calm down,
14112-412: The two books had sold a combined 4.5 million copies. Gladwell's third book, Outliers , published in 2008, examines how a person's environment, in conjunction with personal drive and motivation, affects his or her possibility and opportunity for success. Gladwell's original question revolved around lawyers: "We take it for granted that there's this guy in New York who's the corporate lawyer, right? I just
14238-410: The wake of the book's success, Gladwell was able to earn as much as $ 40,000 per lecture. Sales increased again in 2006 after the release of Gladwell's next book, Blink . The Guardian ranked The Tipping Point #94 in its list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Some of Gladwell's analysis as to why the phenomenon of the "tipping point" occurs (particularly in relation to his idea of the "law of
14364-447: The world through the eyes of others, even if that other happens to be a dog. Gladwell's fifth book, David and Goliath , was released in October 2013, and examines the struggle of underdogs versus favourites. The book is partially inspired by an article Gladwell wrote for The New Yorker in 2009 entitled "How David Beats Goliath". The book was a bestseller but received mixed reviews. Gladwell's sixth book, Talking to Strangers ,
14490-474: The worst portion of the mill-owners". The Manchester Guardian was generally hostile to labour's claims. Of the 1832 Ten Hours Bill, the paper doubted whether in view of the foreign competition "the passing of a law positively enacting a gradual destruction of the cotton manufacture in this kingdom would be a much less rational procedure." The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outside agitators, stating that "if an accommodation can be effected,
14616-486: The young Tom Wolfe." Farhad Manjoo at Salon described the book as "a real pleasure. As in the best of Gladwell's work, Blink brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves." The Economist called Outliers "a compelling read with an important message". David Leonhardt wrote in The New York Times Book Review : "In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell
14742-402: Was a Jamaican free woman of colour (mixed black and white) who was a slaveowner. His great-great-great-grandmother was of Igbo ethnicity from Nigeria. In the epilogue of his 2008 book Outliers he describes many lucky circumstances that came to his family over the course of several generations, contributing to his path towards success. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as
14868-463: Was a mathematics professor from Kent , England. When he was six his family moved from Southampton to the Mennonite community of Elmira, Ontario , Canada. He has two brothers. Throughout his childhood, Malcolm lived in rural Ontario Mennonite country, where he attended a Mennonite church. Research done by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed that one of Gladwell's maternal ancestors
14994-637: Was appointed as the newspaper's first news editor there, becoming the first woman to hold such a position on a British national newspaper. During the early period of the Troubles , The Guardian supported British state intervention to quell disturbances between Irish Catholics and Ulster loyalists in Northern Ireland . After the Battle of the Bogside between Catholic residents of Derry and
15120-503: Was curious: Why is it all the same guy?", referring to the fact that "a surprising number of the most powerful and successful corporate lawyers in New York City have almost the exact same biography". In another example given in the book, Gladwell noticed that people ascribe Bill Gates 's success to being "really smart" or "really ambitious". He noted that he knew a lot of people who are really smart and really ambitious, but not worth $ 60 billion. "It struck me that our understanding of success
15246-548: Was founded in Manchester in 1821 by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor with backing from the Little Circle , a group of non-conformist businessmen. They launched the paper, on 5 May 1821 (by chance the very day of Napoleon's death) after the police closure of the more radical Manchester Observer , a paper that had championed the cause of the Peterloo Massacre protesters. Taylor had been hostile to
15372-562: Was really crude—and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations." Gladwell's fourth book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures , was published in 2009. What the Dog Saw bundles together Gladwell's favourites of his articles from The New Yorker since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1996. The stories share a common theme, namely that Gladwell tries to show us
15498-477: Was released September 2019. The book examines interactions with strangers, covers examples that include the deceptions of Bernie Madoff , the trial of Amanda Knox , the suicide of Sylvia Plath , the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia case at Penn State , and the death of Sandra Bland . Gladwell explained what inspired him to write the book as being "struck by how many high profile cases in the news were about
15624-593: Was the editor of The Guardian at the time, but he went on to argue that the paper had no choice because it "believed in the rule of law". In a 2019 article discussing Julian Assange and the protection of sources by journalists, John Pilger criticised the editor of The Guardian for betraying Tisdall by choosing not to go to prison "on a fundamental principle of protecting a source". In 1994, KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky identified Guardian literary editor Richard Gott as "an agent of influence". While Gott denied that he received cash, he admitted he had had lunch at
15750-562: Was the finding that just three friends of the stockbroker provided the final link for half of the letters that arrived successfully. This gave rise to Gladwell's theory that certain types of people are key to the dissemination of information. In 2003, Duncan Watts , a network theory physicist at Columbia University , repeated the Milgram study by using a web site to recruit 61,000 people to send messages to 18 targets worldwide. He successfully reproduced Milgram's results (the average length of
15876-566: Was voiced by Colton Dunn in Solar Opposites S3.E1 The Extremity Triangulator . The Guardian The Guardian is a British daily newspaper . It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian , and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister papers, The Observer and The Guardian Weekly , The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group , owned by
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