Tipping Point: Read this article, which introduces Gladwell’s “three rules of epidemics”

https://movies2.nytimes.com/books/first/g/gladwell-tipping.html Gladwell’s “rules” can be applied to social epidemics of behaviors, not just outbreaks of disease. Apply the rules to one of the following “epidemics” and analyze why those behaviors caught on.

Option A: College campus parties amidst Covid-19: As campuses reopened in fall of 2020, students gathered in mask-less, shoulder to shoulder parties across the country in utter defiance of state laws, campus policies, and social distancing guidelines.

One frat house with 87.5% positive infection rate hosted a huge gathering; police broke up a massive gathering of NYU students; and, dozens of other news reports tell the same. After Alabama’s Crimson Tide Football won the 2020 national championships, mass crowds gather to celebrate, most of them wtihout masks. Apply Gladwell’s Three Rules of Epidemics to help explain these events.

2. Neuroscience: Read these articles: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_stories_change_brain https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/why-we-prefer-pictures-its-the-way-that-youre-wired Now watch this video: https://youtu.be/QDQ0FjP7J Apply what you’ve learned in these two articles (and the course) and explain why this video “caught on.” Just insert your short answer here, a paragraph or two at the most.