By Malcolm Gladwell
I’ve read the parts of The Tipping Point that were in the New Yorkerbefore, but I’m still really impressed by the ideas on social epidemics. The idea’s that really sticking in my head right now is that of Hartshorne and May’s 1920s studies on cheating, where they concluded that honesty as a trait isn’t “fundamental” in the way we tend to believe, but is often dependent on context: if someone is willing to cheat on a word completion test, it doesn’t mean she’s going to cheat on a different kind of test. Fascinating.
So how much of personality can we directly infer from one person if we only know them in a specific context? I don’t know, but it sure adds to my skepticism about how much outdoor activities can really help teach you about honesty, or to how much learning to be a risk-taker in the physical realm can help you in the business realm. If I trust someone during a trust-fall exercise, does that mean they’re inherently trustworthy in other contexts?
Tangential links: Malcolm Gladwell’s site.