J. T. MacCurdy Character Analysis

MacCurdy is a psychiatrist who wrote about morale. More specifically, MacCurdy studied London’s overall response to German bombings during World War II, wanting to know how Londoners managed to stay so calm during the eight-month bombardment. According to MacCurdy’s analysis, traumatic events effectively break a population into three groups: the “direct hits,” the “near misses,” and the “remote misses.” In London, the direct hits were those who were killed or injured by the bombs; the “near misses” were those who were nearby and were perhaps wounded; the “remote misses” were those who were far enough away that they escaped completely unharmed. MacCurdy found that the “remote misses” developed new outlooks on life, suddenly feeling invincible and incredibly happy. Because the bombings turned the majority of London into “remote misses,” then, the German attacks had the unintended effect of emboldening the entire population. Gladwell turns to this research as a way of illustrating the idea that even traumatic experiences can have positive outcomes.