This article discusses the best-selling book The Secret. For those who do not know, The Secret, written by Australian talk show producer Rhonda Byrne, is a new self-help book that, in short, says putting out positive energy will bring positive things into your life. There have been many scathing criticisms of this book, often focusing on its ridiculous ideas (i.e. in order to be thin, all you have to do is visualize your ideal self). However, Oprah, on her show, has provided “an approving, wholly uncritical platform”, seemingly supporting the book and its ideas.
The success of this book shows how information cascades can easily get started. As more people start to read the book, others believe that it must be a good read or provide great advice. Instead of reading reviews of the book, people will see it on a best-seller list and go out to buy it. What is happening with The Secret is the same as with The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, as discussed in The Tipping Point. However, The Secret” has one thing The Ya-Ya Sisterhood did not, and that is Oprah. Oprah’s endorsement of the book has no doubt helped its sales and pushed it to an even larger audience. This audience then provides more readers of the book and the cycle continues to increase the popularity of the book until enough people lose interest.
In class, we mostly talked about how several people start information cascades. In this case, there is one, very credible source, who is able to use their influence to convince many people to try something (and possibly go against their original thoughts and signals). In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell introduces the idea of Connectors, people who know many other people and are able to bring them together. Oprah is a perfect example; she has a talk show that reaches millions, and people love (and trust) her. This characteristic also makes her a great Salesperson. Because so many people trust her opinion, she can easily persuade people to read books, donate to charities, etc. This is the reason why Oprah’s book club is a huge success. These two personality traits make it very easy for Oprah to start information cascades. The question becomes “where does Oprah get her information”? If the information is bad, all those people who trust her are taking bad advice, which starts a bad information cascade. As this article notes, it is important to stay aware of the products, ventures, and people that she endorses and not just trust her completely. This advice will hopefully remind her viewers that they cannot trust everything they see on TV.
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