Granovetter's Theory Of Human Thresholds Essay

It remains a mystery why terrible events happen so often. People always try to find answers to make sense of this problem. A perfect example of this phenomenon is Granovetter’s theory of human thresholds. This theory accurately proves that riots and school shootings occur because of influence and the tendency we have as humans to follow the crowd. Malcolm Gladwell successfully persuades his readers to believe Granovetter’s theory with facts and examples. Granovetter states that riots are an example of thresholds and why school shootings are occurring so often. They have turned into a nation wide act of assault which he accurately portrays in his article “Thresholds of Violence.” In this article, Gladwell successfully persuades his readers that
It has been thought that those who would commit such horrendous crimes would suffer from some sort of mental illness, however Granovetter’s model proves otherwise. In Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Thresholds of Violence” he uses the story of a young man named John LaDue, who was a quiet and loving kid that one day plotted to set off a bomb at his own high school. “I have good parents. I live in a good town,” says LaDue. He was never diagnosed with any type of mental illness and did not have typical symptoms of a school killer. Granovetter’s theory offers us an explanation as to why such a normal kid would commit to such a terrible act. The theory states that a person who normally wouldn’t do something belligerent, such as a rioter, is more likely to do it because they saw someone do the same thing first. Gladwell uses this theory to convince readers that this is why school shootings have become more common. “A riot was a social process, in which people did things in reaction to and in combination with those around them.” Granovetter claims that this theory could describe many different situations such as strikes, elections, and even leaving a