An Analysis Of Malcom Gladwell's Essay

839 Words2 Pages

When looking at different cultures around the world, people tend to stray from comparing them due to the fact that when claiming one is better than the other it can come off as racist. Malcom Gladwell dances on this line in chapters seven and eight of Outliers. He looks at and compares cultures around the world and claims that success is determined by these factors. I agree with his claim that when considering an individual’s chance of success, the cultural legacies of the person must be considered because of the studies cited by Nalani Ambady, and the evidence Gladwell provides.
Nalani Ambady cited studies in her article “The Mind in the World: Culture and the Brain” to attempt to prove the theory that the culture that you were raised in and …show more content…

In the nineties, this airline was according to Gladwell’s research seventeen times more likely to crash than United Airlines. The company was losing credibility because of its crash rate. To solve this problem, the company brought in experts to assist them redesign the company. These experts looked at the plane and realized that the problem in all of the crashes had nothing to do with the plane, even if there was a plane malfunction. What they concluded was that the communication of the piolets and the co-piolets was horrible. In South Korea, the culture is heavy on the ideas of respect. It affects everything that they do, right down to how they communicate. The co-piolet always feels the need to address the piolet with respect. It is hard to question and even tell a person you respect that they are doing something wrong. The experts claimed that this poor communication caused a series of small problems to turn into a crashed flight. To solve the communication problem, the experts decided to make everyone speak English. This improved the communication because they were unfamiliar with the language, and they didn’t have to show as much respect as they would have to in their native language. By recognizing that cultural legacy of respect, these experts were able to address the flaws in the culture, and change it to help make flights

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