The name of an engrossing book by Malcolm Gladwell, which has a simple thesis: that small causes can have big effects. The so-called tipping point is a sort of critical mass of transfer, be it of culture or contagion. Gladwell posits that the best way to understand social phenomena is to treat social events as a sort of epidemic. He cites several examples of tipping points, ranging from Crime to Teenage Smoking and Hush Puppies, exploring the social phenomena at work.