Some quotes from a relevant critique of Gladwell
Who are those people? They are the readers who will take Gladwell’s laws, rules, and causal theories seriously; they will tweet them to the world, preach them to their underlings and colleagues, write them up in their own books and articles (David Brooks relied on Gladwell’s claims more than once in his last book), and let them infiltrate their own decision-making processes. These are the people who will learn to trust their guts (Blink), search out and lavish attention and money on fictitious “influencers” (The Tipping Point), celebrate neurological problems rather than treat them (David and Goliath), and fail to pay attention to talent and potential because they think personal triumph results just from luck and hard work (Outliers).
and
What Malcom Gladwell says matters because, whether academics like it or not, he is incredibly influential.
…
I know Gladwell has influence for multiple reasons. One is that even highly-educated people in leadership positions in academia—a field where I have experience—are sometimes more familiar with and more likely to cite Gladwell’s writings than those of the top scholars in their own fields, even when those top scholars have put their ideas into trade-book form like Gladwell does.
Given his popularity it’s not a stretch to assume lots of politicians make decisions influenced by their reading of Malcolm Gladwell or summaries of his work.
To put it another way, because of his popularity and therefore influence he’s effectively another Jenny McCarthy in disguise. Spreading his unfounded conclusions and influencing people’s thinking with no grounding in reality.
