The Tipping Point: Chapter 7–Afterword

by Malcolm Gladwell
How does a small idea become a global craze? In this work of nonfiction, Malcolm Gladwell analyzes how trends are set in motion.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction–Chapter 2, Chapters 3–4, Chapters 5–6, Chapter 7–Afterword

Here are links to our lists for other works by Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers, Blink
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. inveigh
    speak against in an impassioned manner
    As any parent of a teenage child will tell you, the essential contrariness of adolescents suggests that the more adults inveigh against smoking and lecture teenagers about its dangers, the more teens, paradoxically, will want to try it.
  2. relevant
    having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    That’s why the epidemic of suicide in Micronesia is so interesting and potentially relevant to the smoking problem.
  3. vulnerable
    susceptible to criticism or persuasion or temptation
    In the case of suicide, Phillips argues, the decision by someone famous to take his or her own life has the same effect: it gives other people, particularly those vulnerable to suggestion because of immaturity or mental illness, permission to engage in a deviant act as well.
  4. nuance
    a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
    If suicide in the West is a kind of crude language, in Micronesia it has become an incredibly expressive form of communication, rich with meaning and nuance, and expressed by the most persuasive of permission-givers.
  5. scion
    a descendent or heir
    Then, in November of 1966, came the death of R., the charismatic scion of one of the island’s wealthiest families.
  6. extrovert
    a person directed toward others as opposed to the self
    The quintessential hard-core smoker, according to Eysenck, is an extrovert, the kind of person who is sociable, likes parties, has many friends, needs to have people to talk to.
  7. surfeit
    the state of being more than full
    “One theory,” Krogh writes, “has it that their lack of deference and their surfeit of defiance combine to make them relatively indifferent to what people think of them.”
  8. innate
    present at birth but not necessarily hereditary
    We suspect, as I wrote previously, that one of the reasons some experimenters never smoke again and some turn into lifelong addicts is that human beings may have very different innate tolerances for nicotine.
  9. debilitating
    impairing strength and vitality
    Here is stickiness with a vengeance: not only do some smokers find it hard to quit because they are addicted to nicotine, but also because without nicotine they run the risk of a debilitating psychiatric illness.
  10. placebo
    an innocuous or inert medication
    In the study, 23 percent of smokers given a course of anti-smoking counseling and a placebo quit after four weeks.
  11. truculent
    defiantly aggressive
    Teens are always going to be fascinated by people like Maggie the au pair and Billy G. and Pam P., and they should be fascinated by people like that, if only to get past the adolescent fantasy that to be rebellious and truculent and irresponsible is a good way to spend your life.
  12. impetus
    a force that makes something happen
    What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus.
  13. volatile
    liable to lead to sudden change or violence
    That’s why social change is so volatile and so often inexplicable, because it is the nature of all of us to be volatile and inexplicable.
  14. inexplicable
    incapable of being explained or accounted for
    That’s why social change is so volatile and so often inexplicable, because it is the nature of all of us to be volatile and inexplicable.
  15. credence
    the mental attitude that something is believable
    The fact that expressing a dissenting view in person is much harder socially, in other words, gives that opinion much more credence in the group’s deliberations.
Created on Tue Nov 26 14:31:47 EST 2013 (updated Mon Jul 14 15:59:29 EDT 2025)

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