Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know

Part 5 introduces the concept of coupling, which is the notion that “behaviors are linked to very specific circumstances and conditions” (273). Gladwell discusses how suicide is a coupled behavior because it is tied to the availability of suicide methods. Crime is similarly coupled with particular places.

Gladwell claims that one of the mistakes we often make with strangers is failing to take into account “the context in which the stranger is operating” (280). If we ignore contextual factors, then Sylvia Plath, for instance, seems to be a person who was doomed to kill herself. However, Plath’s suicide was tied to the availability of a suicide method she was willing to use, and so under different circumstances she may have never killed herself. If we don’t pay attention to coupling, then we are more likely to oversimplify strangers and jump to conclusions.

In Chapter 10, Gladwell contrasts coupling with displacement. Displacement is the idea that if one option is blocked, people will simply achieve the same thing in a different way. If a suicide method is made impossible, then it is assumed that people will kill themselves in a different way. If the police suppress crime in one area, then it is assumed that criminals will carry out their activities in a different area.