Malcolm Gladwell Stickiness Factor Analysis

On the front cover of my copy of The Tipping Point, there is a subtitle that says “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”, and this statement could not more accurately describe the contents of Malcom Gladwell’s first book. I have been pleasantly surprised by the contents of this small, 280-page book; I am only three chapters in and already I feel as if it has changed the way I think about the choices I make in my day-to-day life. For example, Gladwell forces the reader to think beyond the brand name, such as in his opening example of Hush Puppy shoes, and instead asks the less obvious questions: how did they become popular? Why? Although Gladwell has written an intriguing opening to his novel, so far I have found the third chapter to be the most interesting concept he has so far brought to the reader’s attention: The Stickiness Factor. The ideas behind the Stickiness Factor are already concepts that most people in modern day society

are already familiar with, yet Gladwell breaks them down into an understandable pattern and uses relatable real-world examples to help the reader better understand why having the Stickiness Factor is crucial to any sort of product, chain, or trend that will “tip” over its Tipping Point.
Just like every other 4 to 5-year-old child that grew up with a television in their home, I was a frequent watcher of a variety of children’s TV shows, ranging from Blue’s Clues to Dragon Tales to Between the Lions. Little did I know when I was that age that I was actually gaining something by sitting in front of the TV screen. In chapter three, Gladwell uses the popular children’s show Sesame Street and its beginnings to illustrate how the Stickiness Factor works. I absolutely love this part of the book. Of course, now that I am older and have re-watched a lot of these “children’s” shows with younger siblings and family members, I understand that there is meant to be an educational value to these shows. Yet it is extremely fascinating how much work and research went into the development of each episode, to make sure the information “stuck” with the viewer. In attempt to make sure Sesame Street was sticky, the producers of the show ran a wide variety of different experiments on preschool age children, and learned some stunning information about how absorbent children are- when they find the show entertaining enough to watch it and stay engaged.
In one of the experiments, on page 101, two researchers for Sesame Street played the same episode for two groups of five-year-olds. The first group of kids were engaged in the show 87 percent of the time, whereas the second group, who were places in a room with toys on the floor, were engaged only 47 percent of the time. However, when both groups of kids were tested over the contents of the episode, both groups scored exactly the same. This lead the researchers to conclude that 5-year-olds have the capability to strategically distribute their attention, to not be 100 percent engaged in the show but still pick up and remember the most important parts of the episode. A concept called the Distractor, which is detailed through pages 102-109, was also experimented with on several occasions in conjunction to Sesame Street. The one I found most interesting was the one conducted in Philadelphia, about a month and a half before the show was expected to hit the air. After lots of discussion with child psychologists, the producers of Sesame Street decided to keep the fantasy elements (the Muppets) in separate segments of the show than the adults and children, which were shown on the actual Sesame Street, as to keep the young viewers from confusing fantasy with reality. When episodes of this nature were shown to kids, they stayed attentive during the Muppet segments of the show and then completely lost interest during the segments with only people. Due to this terrible reaction, producers were forced to go against the advisement of the child psychologist and include Muppets in scenes with real people, giving us the most famous of the show’s Muppets, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. These experiments, along with many more that were conducted for Sesame Street, proved that a child could be educated via television and that the provided information would stick with the kids, as long as the show kept the child engaged through applying a variety of different elements, such as the interaction between Muppet and man.
Although I found the concept of the Stickiness Factor very intriguing, there were two elements of this chapter I feel like Gladwell did not go into enough detail about and he does not develop these trains of thought as I would have liked for him to as the reader.

One of these is where you can actually find an application of the Stickiness Factor. Gladwell goes in to great detail of the Stickiness Factor and how it was used in the development of children’s TV shows, but that is about it. On pages 91-99, he briefly relates it to advertising before changing it back to the concept of its usage in television shows. I really wish that Gladwell would have further explored this application of the Stickiness Factor. I can kind of understand how it is used based off the example with the treasure chest in the ad, and how that makes it stick with the reader, but that is the only example Gladwell gives. I am left wondering because this idea does not reach the full level of development as the idea with its usage in children’s television

shows.
The other element of this chapter I had a hard time with is, when Gladwell changes over to discussing Blue’s Clues, the idea of introducing a story line to children’s shows. For years and years, Sesame Street was a magazine show- it consisted of short, quirky segments that had no real cohesion or thought, like a story line. With the development of Blue’s Clues, a story line was introduced- and it worked. Although Gladwell has included experiments in which the producers tested the children’s understanding of the storylines that went into Blue’s Clues, I never really feel like he answers the question: why does this work? He even gives an example starting on page 113 of an episode were it did not work for Sesame Street, but he never comes back around to why it made Blue’s Clues an extremely successful show, one that was able to teach children and hold their attention around one cohesive thought for a thirty-minute show.
The Stickiness Factor is an intriguing idea that held my attention very well when I read Chapter Three. Education- especially the ability to read- is an important necessity to functioning in the modern world, and it is absolutely inspiring how one lady who wanted to spread literacy to children in underprivileged situations permanently “tipped” the idea of television shows and what having a TV in your home can do for the viewer- no matter the age. I now understand on a much deeper level the need for something to have a “sticky” quality if it is going to sweep the population, much like the Hush Puppies did the 1990s. I look forward to continuing to read The Tipping Point and building off the Stickiness Factor.