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In his book The Tipping Point, MalcolmGladwell argue that “social epidemics” are driven in large part bythe action of a tiny of special individuals, often calledinfluentials, who are unusually informed, persuasive, or wellconnected. The idea is intuitively compelling, but it doesn’texplain how ideas actually spread.
The supposed importance of influentials drivesfrom a plausible-sounding but largely untested theory called the“two-step flow of communication”: Information flows from the mediato the influentials and from them to everyone else. Marketers haveembraced the two-step flow because it suggests that if they canjust find and influence the influentials, those select people willdo most of the work for them. The theory also seems to explain thesudden and unexpected popularity of certain looks, brands, orneighborhoods. In many such cases, a cursory search for causesfinds that some small group of people was wearing, promoting, ordeveloping whatever it is before anyone else paid attention.Anecdotal evidence of this kind fits nicely with the idea that onlycertain special people can drive trend.
In their recent work, however, some reachers havecome up with the finding that influencials have far less impact onspecial epidemics than is generally supposed. Infact, they don’t seem to be required at all.
The researchers argument stems from a simpleobservation about social influence: With the exception of a fewcelebrities like Oprah Winfrey-whose outsize presence is primarilya function of media, not interpersonal, influence-even the mostinfluential members of a population simply don’t interact with thatmany others. Yet it is precisely these noncelebrity influentialswho, according to the two-step-flow theory, are supposed to drivesocial epidemics, by influencing their friends and colleaguesdirectly. For a social epidemic to occur, however, each person soaffected must then influence his or her own acquaintances, who mustin turn influencing theirs, and so on; and just how many others payattention to each of these people has little to do with theinitial influential. If people in the network just two degreesremoved from the initial influential prove resistant, for example,the cascade of change won’t propagate very far or affect manypeople.
Building on this basic truth about interpersonalinfluence, the researchers studied the dynamics of social influenceby conducting thousands of computer simulations of populations,manipulating a number of variables relating to people’s ability toinfluence others and their tendency to be influenced. They foundthat the principal requirement for what is called “globalcascades”-the widespread propagation of inflence throughnetworks-is the presence not of a few influentials but, rather, ofa critical mass of easily influenced people.
题目
31. By citing the book The Tipping Point,the author intends to
[A] analyze the consequences of socialepidemics.
[B] discuss influentials’ function in spreadingideas.
[C] exemplify people’s intuitive response tosocial epidemics.
[D] describe the essential characteristics ofinfluentials.
32. The author suggests that the “two-step-flowtheory”
[A] serves as a solution to marketingproblems.
[B] has helped explain certain prevalenttrends.
[C] has won support from influentials.
[D] requires solid evidence for itsvalidity.
33. What the researchers have observed recentlyshow that
[A] the power of influence goes with socialinteractions.
[B] interpersonal links can be enhanced throughthe media.
[C] influentials have more channels to reach thepublic.
[D] most celebrities enjoy wide mediaattention.
34. The underlined phrase “these people” inparagraph 4 refers to the ones who
[A] stay outside the network of socialinfluence.
[B] have little contact with the source ofinfluence.
[C] are influenced and then influenceothers.
[D] are influenced by the initialinfluential.
35. What is the essential element in the dynamicsof social influence?
[A] The eagerness to be accepted.
[B] The impulse to influence other.
[C] The readiness to be influenced.
[D] The inclination to rely on others
全文翻译
在MalcolmGladwell的书《爆破点》中，他认为“社会流行”被驱动大部分来自很少一部分的少数特殊个人的行为，这些人常常消息灵通，有说服力，好的人际交往。这个想法直觉上令人叹服，但是它没有解释出注意是怎样实际传播的。
假定的有影响力人士的重要性来自于一个貌似可信但大部分未被检验的被称为“信息两级流动”的理论：信息从媒体流向有影响力的人士，再从有影响力的人士流向其余每个人。市场营销人员已经接受了两级流动理论，因为这个理论暗示如果他们仅仅只要找到并且影响有影响力的人士，这些精英人士将会为他们做大部分的工作。这一理论也似乎解释了某一牌子，品牌或者地段突然不可预期的流行。在许多如此的案例中，对这样的事情做了一次粗略的调查发现：一小部分人总是在别人关注之前去穿，促销或者发展一些东西无论这些是什么。这种奇闻异事的证据很嗨的适合了仅仅某一特殊的人们可以驱动潮流的观点。
然而，研究者们在最近的工作中提出了一个发现：有影响力的人士在特种流行上的影响力远远不及通常所假象的。实际上，他们（有影响力人士）似乎没有一点被要求。
研究者们的理论源于对社会影响的一个简单的观察，除了像Oprah Winfrey——她在外面的影响力主要来自于媒体的功能，而不是人际交往——这样的极少数名人，甚至一词流行的最有影响力的人员简单的不跟其他许多人互动交流。但是，根据信息两级流动理论恰恰是这些非名人的有影响力的人士被支持通过直接影响他的朋友和同事推动社会流行潮。然而，对于社会流行潮的发生，每一个被影响的人必须然后去影响他或她自己的熟人；被影响的人再去轮流影响他认识的人，依次下去；有多少没被影响的人关注过被影响的人中的每一个人跟最初有影响力的人士没有关系。例如，如果在这个网络中的人们恰好距离最初有影响力的人士在第二级显示出抵制，那么改变的瀑布流将不会传递更远或者影响