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Crowd psychology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. Ordinary people can

typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, because large

groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social

change in a manner that bypasses established due process, they have also

provoked controversy. Social scientists have developed several different

theories for explaining crowd psychology, and the ways in which the psychology

of the crowd differs significantly from the psychology of those individuals

within it. Carl Jung coined the notion of the Collective unconscious. Other

major thinkers of crowd psychology include Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter,

Gabriel Tarde, Sigmund Freud and Elias Canetti.

Theories of crowd psychology

[edit] Classical theories

The main idea of Sigmund Freud's crowd behavior theory is that people who are

in a crowd act differently towards people than those who are thinking

individually. The minds of the group would merge together to form a way of

thinking. Each member's enthusiasm would be increased as a result, and one

becomes less aware of the true nature of one's actions.

Le Bon s idea that crowds foster anonymity and sometimes generate emotion has

become somewhat of a clich . Yet, it has been contested by some critics, such

as Clark McPhail who points out that some studies show that "the madding crowd"

does not take on a life of its own, apart from the thoughts and intentions of

members. Norris Johnson, after investigating a panic at a 1979 Who concert

concluded that the crowd was composed of many small groups of people mostly

trying to help each other.

However, it must be noted that if Le Bon often referred to the clich of the

irrational crowd, which was current in the 19th century and before (in

particular in the fields of criminology, which tended to describe crowds as

irrational and criminal groups), he considered himself the founder of "crowd

psychology". Thus, he didn't consider crowds as totally irrational, but simply

thought that ordinary individualist psychology wasn't relevant to this

phenomenon. Le Bon was a pioneer in propaganda, which he considered a suitable

and rational technique for managing groups, using for example communal

reinforcement of beliefs, etc. Le Bon's 1895 The Crowd: A Study of the Popular

Mind influenced many 20th century figures, including Adolf Hitler, whose Mein

Kampf insisted on Le Bon's work.[1]

Wilfred Trotter, an English surgeon, wrote similarly, becoming famous for his

book Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. He introduced Wilfred Bion with

whom he lived and worked, to the ideas of Sigmund Freud, and would later become

personal physician to Freud. Wilfred Bion, and Ernest Jones, who also worked

for Trotter, became influential figures in the British Psychoanalytic movement,

and Bion who wrote a collection of papers on Experiences in Groups said that he

was much influenced by Trotter.

Sigmund Freud would criticize Le Bon's concept of "collective soul", comparing

it to the collective unconscious, asserting that crowds do not have a soul of

their own, nor do specific ethnic groups have a Volkgeist. Rather, individuals

identify themselves to their leaders through their own "ideal ego" (that is,

their subjective representation of their leader). The Freudian concept of an

"ideal ego" later became the super-ego. Ultimately, leaders themselves identify

themselves to an idea.

Theodor Adorno criticized the belief in a spontaneity of the masses: according

to him, the masses were an artificial product of "administrated" modern life.

The Ego of the bourgeois subject dissolved itself, giving way to the Id and the

"de-psychologized" subject. Furthermore, the bond linking the masses to the

leader through the spectacle, as fascism displayed in its public

representations, is feigned: "When the leaders become conscious of mass

psychology and take it into their own hands, it ceases to exist in a certain

sense... Just as little as people believe in the depth of their hearts that the

Jews are the devil, do they completely believe in their leader. They do not

really identify themselves with him but act this identification, perform their

own enthusiasm, and thus participate in their leader's performance... It is

probably the suspicion of this fictitiousness of their own 'group psychology'

which makes fascist crowds so merciless and unapproachable. If they would stop

to reason for a second, the whole performance would go to pieces, and they

would be left to panic."[2]

Edward Bernays (1891 1995), nephew of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, was

considered the father of the field of public relations. Bernays was one of the

first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the psychology of the

subconscious. He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he felt

was irrational and dangerous.

[edit] Convergence theory

Convergence theory holds that crowd behavior is not a product of the crowd

itself, but is carried into the crowd by particular individuals. Thus, crowds

amount to a convergence of like-minded individuals. In other words, while

contagion theory states that crowds cause people to act in a certain way,

convergence theory says the opposite: that people who wish to act in a certain

way come together to form crowds.

An example of convergence theory states that there is no homogeneous activity

within a repetitive practice, sometimes observed when an immigrant population

becomes common in a previously homogeneous area, and members of the existing

community (apparently spontaneously) band together to threaten those trying to

move into their neighborhoods. In such cases, convergence theorists contend,

the crowd itself does not generate racial hatred or violence; rather, the

hostility has been simmering for some time among many local people. A crowd

then arises from convergence of people who oppose the presence of these

neighbors. Convergence theory claims that crowd behavior as such is not

irrational; rather, people in crowds express existing beliefs and values so

that the mob reaction is the rational product of widespread popular feeling.

[edit] Emergent-norm theory

Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian developed the emergent-norm theory of crowd

dynamics. These researchers concede that social behavior is never entirely

predictable, but neither are crowds irrational. If similar interests may draw

people together, distinctive patterns of behavior may emerge in the crowd

itself. Crowds begin as collectivities, acting, and protest crowds norms may

be vague and changing as when, say, one person at a rock concert holds up a lit

cigarette lighter to signal praise for the performers, followed by others. In

short, people in crowds make their own rules as they go along.

Decision-making, then, plays a major role in crowd behavior, although casual

observers of a crowd may not realize it. Crowd behavior reflects the desires of

participants, but it is also guided by norms that emerge as the situation

unfolds. Emergent-norm theory points out that people in a crowd take on

different roles. Some step forward as leaders; others become lieutenants,

rank-and-file followers, inactive bystanders or even opponents. Each Member in

the crowd plays a significant role.