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A comment on Malcolm Gladwell Gets It Wrong – Again . Parent comment

Re:Malcolm Gladwell Gets It Wrong – Again by cjy on Tuesday October 05, 2010 @02:14AM (#1758771)
The problem with that analogy is that people rarely respond if asked to do something as part of a group. By nature, a mass facebook request isn't personalized. It's like asking if anyone in the class knows the answer vs. picking on a particular student. If the request is made to the group, it is too easy to free ride on others.

It's not fair to compare all your friends on facebook vs. only your closest friends in person. If I sent a request for help via a group text to everyone on my phone I'd probably get less of a response than if I sent personalized messages to my 15 closest friends on facebook. You have to compare apples to apples.

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Re:Malcolm Gladwell Gets It Wrong – Again by dasil003 on Tuesday October 05, 2010 @02:38AM (#1758813)
Officially known as "diffusion of responsibility". It's the reason why, if you are a witness to an accident and you are attending to an injured individual, you are supposed to point to a single individual bystander and tell them call for an ambulance rather than say "someone call 911".
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