March 21, 2000
Web posted at: 4:00 p.m. EDT

(CNN) – Malcolm Gladwell has written a book entitled "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference." The book examines why major changes in our society often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Gladwell believes that ideas and behavior and products can be infectious, creating "social epidemics." The name of the book, "The Tipping Point," describes exactly the moment when such an epidemic takes off.

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1996. He was a reporter for The Washington Post from 1987 to 1996, first as a science writer and then as New York City bureau chief. He was born in England and grew up in Canada.

CNN.com provided a typist for Mr. Gladwell, who joined the Book Chat by telephone. The following is an edited transcript of the chat.

Chat Moderator: Welcome to CNN, Malcolm Gladwell.

Malcolm Gladwell: Hi! Glad to be here.

Chat Moderator: What motivated you to write a book on social epidemics?

Malcolm Gladwell: I have been covering the AIDS epidemic for The Washington Post and became very interested in the way epidemics work. It began to occur to me that it wasn't simply viruses that were contagious but that ideas and behaviors could be contagious in exactly the same way.

Chat Moderator: How do you define "social epidemic"?

Malcolm Gladwell: A social epidemic is a movement of an idea or behavior through a population in a way that resembles the dramatic and infectious movement of a virus.

Question from OXTUBE: How about we all stop watching TV and maybe our social epidemics will be less destructive?

Malcolm Gladwell: Television can start epidemics, in fact. In my book, I have an entire chapter on a learning epidemic started by "Sesame Street." Used properly, television will be a source of incredibly infectious ideas.

Question from Jude: First of all, Malcolm, I'm reading your book right now (about halfway through) and it's fantastic so far. Secondly, in marketing a technology/product, what things should be kept in mind in terms of "tipping point" principles?

Malcolm Gladwell: Well, thank you. The key principle I think is to remember that epidemics are created and sustained by very small groups of exceptional people. It is important to identify just who the socially influential types are in any audience that you are trying to reach. In some ways, that is a harder task than the standard advertising model which assumes that all customers are of equal importance.

Question from Sunny1: When we hear about a fad sweeping the country -- such as Furbys -- is that a social epidemic?

Malcolm Gladwell: Yes. Fads are quintessential epidemics because they involve an incredibly infectious product. People become infected with excitement over that product in exactly the same way that they get infected by disease. Disease epidemics, however, have a very limited life span. Anything that is epidemic in nature will fade away as suddenly as it appears in the same way that the flu virus disappears each spring.

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Question from Sunny1: How do marketing people go about identifying who the "exceptional people" are?

Malcolm Gladwell: Good Question. It depends a lot on the products being marketed. In the case of high tech products, for example, what matters most is who are the first people to buy a new product. In the case of something like grocery shopping, it might be people who use and clip coupons. In both cases, we are looking for behaviors that signal a particular level of expertise and, more importantly, obsession.

Chat Moderator: What is your theory about how ideas are spread?

Malcolm Gladwell: The first part of my book is devoted entirely to that question. It’s an examination of what is meant by the term "word-of-mouth." The basic principle is that a tiny fraction of any population has social ties and networks that are several orders of magnitude greater than the rest of us. Those people, along with people I call "mavens" -- who have particular areas of expertise much deeper than the rest of us -- do all the "work" in creating word-of-mouth.

Word-of-mouth is not an egalitarian phenomenon. It is something created by a small group of exceptional people. Disease epidemics are actually the same way.

Question from Jude: The chapter on "stickiness" was interesting, no doubt. Have you ever looked into stickiness as it applies to a more static medium like web sites?

Malcolm Gladwell: I haven't for the simple reason that that is something many others have looked at.

Question from Sunny1: How is that excitement spread? How do so many people get infected?

Malcolm Gladwell: Because as human beings we are heavily under the sway of certain kinds of very charismatic people. I have a group I call "salesmen" who are also critical in word-of-mouth and they are masters at creating that kind of excitement.

Chat Moderator: What are the most significant beneficial social epidemics we have experienced?

Malcolm Gladwell: I have a long discussion in my book of the greatest word-of-mouth epidemic in American history, which is Paul Revere's midnight ride. I think the learning epidemic created by "Sesame Street" is awfully significant as well.

Right now, I am very intrigued by Pokemon, which seems to be a childhood epidemic of extraordinary depth and longevity.

Chat Moderator: What are one or two of the most significant negative social epidemics in man's history?

Malcolm Gladwell: Without question in recent American history, the crime epidemic that started in the late 60's and ended just a few years ago is enormously significant. Right now, I am worried most about the teenage smoking epidemic that we seem to be in the middle of and which I devote a chapter to in my book. I think it's also safe to say that the wave of school violence in this country is showing all the signs of being a social epidemic.

Chat Moderator: Who are "connectors"?

Malcolm Gladwell: Connectors are people who have a greater than average numbers of friends and acquaintances. They are those special people I talked about earlier who play a huge role in word-of-mouth.

Chat Moderator: How does one become a connector and is this something we should strive to be?

Malcolm Gladwell: I think connectors are probably born and not made. It's really an innate personality trait which requires, among other things, enormous amounts of energy, a prodigious memory and an almost infinite capacity and love of socializing. I am not sure it is possible to have those qualities unless you were born with them.

Chat Moderator: Why do you think people should think about life as an epidemic?

Malcolm Gladwell: Because there is often no other way to explain how ideas or behaviors can so quickly engulf a community.

Chat Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts for us?

Malcolm Gladwell: This is a book for the curious. One of the things I discovered as I talked to people about my book is that there is a kind of hunger for knowledge and understanding about the way that things like social epidemics work.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Malcolm Gladwell, to discuss your book, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference."

Malcolm Gladwell: I am delighted to have been invited.