Malcolm Gladwell: How To Make Numbers “Sticky”

Hey guys,

Okay, okay, you got me… Malcolm Gladwell isn’t actually giving dating advice on how to get a girls phone number – But!… I’ve recently read his book The Tipping Point in which we can learn a lot from in regards to having impact and being memorable; breaking through what the advertising business calls the “clutter” problem, or in our case separating ourselves from the thousands of guys that have previously hit on a girl.

I recently wrote a full article about how to get a girls phone number in the daytime in which I focus on how to eliminate flakes, by really building a connection with a girl. However, below I have included an extract from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point which perfectly illustrates how the most subtle of changes with presentation can massively alter an outcome.

I highly recommend the book, it’s a great read, packed with interesting statistics and something you’ll be passing onto all your mates.

How To Make Numbers “Sticky” And Eliminate Flakes…

“Levanthal wanted to see if he could persuade a group of college seniors at Yale University to get a tetanus shot.

He divided them up into several groups, and gave all of them a seven-page booklet explaining the dangers of tetanus, the importance of inoculation, and the fact that the university was offering free tetanus shots at the campus health centre to all interested students. The booklets came in several versions. Some of the students were given a “high fear” version, which described tetanus in dramatic terms and included color photographs of a child having a tetanus seizure and other tetanus victims with urinary catheters, tracheotomy wounds, and nasal tubes. In the “low fear” version, the language describing the risks of tetanus was toned down, and the photographs were omitted.

Levanthal wanted to see what impact the different booklets had on the students’ attitudes toward tetanus and their likelihood of getting a shot.

The results were, in part, quite predictable. When they were given a questionnaire later, all the students appeared to be well educated about the dangers of tetanus. But those who were given the high-fear booklet were more convinced of the dangers of tetanus, more convinced of the importance of shots, and were more likely to say that they intended to get inoculated. All of those differences evaporated, however, when Levanthal looked at how many of the students actually went and got a shot.

One month after the experiments, almost none of the subjects – a mere 3 percent – had actually gone to the health centre get inoculated.

For some reason, the students had forgotten everything they had learned about tetanus, and the lessons they had been told weren’t translating into action. The experiment didn’t stick. Why not?

If we didn’t know about the Stickiness Factor, we probably would conclude that something was wrong with the way the booklet explained tetanus to students. We might wonder whether trying to scare them was the appropriate direction to take, whether there was a social stigma surrounding tetanus that inhibited students from admitting they were at risk, or perhaps that medical care itself was intimidating to students. In any case, the fact that only 3 percent of students responded suggested that there was a long way to go to reach the goal. But the Stickiness Factor suggests something quite different. It suggests that the problem probably wasn’t with the overall conception of the message at all, and that maybe all the campaign needed was a little gold box.

Sure enough, when Levanthal redid the experiment, one small change was sufficient to tip the vaccination rate up to 28 percent.

It was simply including a map of the campus, with the university health building circled and the times that shots were available clearly listed.

There are two types of interesting results of this study. The first is that of the 28 percent who got inoculated, an equal number were from the high-fear booklet and the low-fear booklet.

Whatever extra persuasive muscle was found in the high-fear booklet was clearly irrelevant.

The students knew, without seeing gory pictures, what the dangers of tetanus were, and what they ought to be doing. The second interesting thing is that, of course, as seniors they must have already known where the health centre was, and doubtless had visited it several times already. It is doubtful that any of them would ever actually have used the map. In other words, what the tetanus intervention needed in order to tip was not an avalanche of new or additional information. What it needed was a subtle but significant change in presentation. The students needed to know how to fit the tetanus stuff into their lives; the addition of the map and the times when the shots were available shifted the booklet from an abstract lesson in medical risk – a lesson no different from the countless other academic lessons they had received over their academic career – to a practical and personal piece of medical advice.

And once the advice became practical and personal, it became memorable.”

There you go. The tiniest little detail can really make all the difference. Now I’m not suggesting you print out a map that directs a girl to your apartment.. But from this experiment I think it’s fair to conclude that the more thorough you are when closing in regards to making plans, and the more personal your interaction is, the more memorable you will be, and the more a girl will feel committed to meeting you.

Hope this helps,

Andy