Outliers: The Matthew Effect Analysis

In the first chapter of Outliers: The Matthew Effect, author Malcolm Gladwell introduces research done in showing that society has a unique way in perceiving success. He provides evidence of an uncontrollable source such as birthdates being a large factor in success by presenting the reader with charts. The author also tells of how children perceived as successful at a young age will continue to get ahead during life. The overabundance of proof shown in the text shows that the author has done an immense amount of research on this topic. Author Malcolm Gladwell effectively builds his argument of the connection of success to uncontrollable factors by appealing to the reader’s emotions, giving proof of research done by professionals, and giving
The author provides reader with a Canadian hockey league roster that includes players ages which relates to how they got ahead. The connection between birthdates and successful hockey players was first discovered by psychologist Roger Barnsley and his wife when attending a Major Junior A hockey game. After further examination of the birthday of players Barnsley discovered that most players are born in the first few months of the year because of the cutoff date for getting onto leagues, “In any elite group of hockey players-the very best of the best-40 percent of the players will have been born between January and March, 30 percent between April and June, 20 percent between October and December” (Gladwell 4). These players were not chosen because of their abilities on the ice, they were chosen because they were older and more developed physically than those born at the end of the year. After looking into other hockey leagues and even other sports, Barnsley concluded that players are chosen before true ability can even be shown. The authors use of physical evidence that those born closer to the cut-off date helps to prove that society has an unorthodox way of looking at what is actual success and what is just sheer coincidence. Gladwell also uses evidence relating to school and how successful children are done by economists Kelly Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey. The pair first did a study on fourth graders and how their birth month related to their success in school. The results showed that older students scored higher on certain tests than younger students. The two then did the same study with college students and found that the results were the same, “Students belonging to the relatively youngest group in their class are underrepresented by about 11.6 percent. That initial