Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Three Rules of Epidemics -- The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen -- The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, and the Educational Virus -- The Power of Context (Part One): Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime -- The Power of Context (Part Two): The Magic Number One Hundred and Fifty -- Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation -- Case Study Suicide, Smoking, and the Search for the Unsticky Cigarette -- Conclusion: Focus, Test, and Believe.

The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a sick individual in a crowded store can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend or the popularity of a new restaurant to take off overnight -- or crime or drug use to taper off. Gladwell has explored this theory to great acclaim in several articles in The New Yorker. Here, he shows how very minor adjustments in products and ideas can make them more likely to become hugely popular. He reveals how easy it is to cause group behavior to tip in a desirable direction by making small changes in our immediate environment.

What makes The Tipping Point exceptional: -- It contains a profoundly hopeful idea that people will embrace for its sense and simplicity: one imaginative person, applying a well-placed lever, can move the world.-- Examples are recognizable: in the New York subways, removing graffiti caused a dramatic reduction in crime; a specific "hip" group of teenagers wore Hush Puppies and suddenly sparked a national craze.-- This is a book that should be read by everyone in business, politics, marketing, advertising, and anyone interested in trends, fashion, fads, policy making, and human behavior. In other words, all of us.