The Power of Context Paper Most people would believe that we are shaped and defined by our values and moral character. However, Malcolm Gladwell argues, in the chapter “The Power of Context, Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime” In other words, The Power of Context is the social setting and or the environment around you and how it affects your behavior. Anticipating resistance from the reader Gladwell uses rhetorical strategies such as real life examples, controlled experiments and theories to help advance his claim and to help persuade the reader to side with his argument. Gladwell carefully constructs his argument by offering the real life story of Bernie Goetz. Gladwell uses this example in order to provide a
He also uses this example to help the resistance the reader may have accepting his claim that we are all subject to “The Power of Context”. To offer an even more powerful study Gladwell uses The Princeton Theological study, he uses this example to show that even those who are held in high moral regard are susceptible to their contextual situations. In this study, “John Darley and Daniel Batson met with a group of seminarians, individually, and asked each one to prepare a short, extemporaneous talk on a biblical theme, then walk over to a nearby building to give the speech” (298). Then on situational context and over look other people in society. Gladwell offers that “…We need to remember that small changes in context can be just as important in tipping epidemics, even though that fact appears to violate some of most deeply help assumptions about human nature” (299). This helps advance his claim by further breaking down the reader’s resistance to the claim and helps further show that we are all capable of reaching a tipping point and falling victim to our social context. This example also demonstrates to the reader that everyone even highly looked upon individuals can still fall victim to the context around them and that it can and most likely will change their behavior. Gladwell notes that even the most noble in our society are capable of acting out of context. To further defend his claim and help with the readers resistance Gladwell uses the FAE (Fundamental