17 Crowds and Collectives A detailed study of groups would be incomplete if it did not consider the dynamics of larger social collectives. For centuries people have wondered at the seemingly inexplicable actions that people undertake when part of a large mass of humanity. Juries, teams, squads, clubs, and cults are all intrig- uing, but so are riots and rumors; crowds and crazes; and mobs and movements. This unit describes collectives, explains their dynamics, and seeks to repair their reputation.  What is collective behavior?  What theories explain collective behavior?  How different are collectives from other types of groups?

Crowds and Collectives Collectives: Forms and Features What are collectives? Gatherings Crowds Collective movements Social movements Collective Dynamics Contagion Convergence Deindividuation Emergent norms Social identity Collectives are groups Myth of the madding crowd Studying groups Preview

Relatively large aggregations of individuals who display similarities in action and outlook. Examples………….. Queue What are collectives?

Characteristics of Collectives  Size: large rather than small  Proximity: together or disbursed  Duration: form and disband rapidly (but not always)  Conventionality: sometimes members’ actions are atypical, unconventional, or aberrant  Relationships among members: weak associations rather than cohesive What are collectives?

Forms of Collective Behavior What are collectives?

Gathering GroupCrowd Gatherings Social order in gatherings: Milgram’s line jumping study

 Crowds: street crowds, mobs, panics formation processes and crowd crystals Crowds

Milgram’s Study of Crowd Formation

McPhail, Schweingrube, & Turner’s observation system Crowds

 Mobs  celebratory mobs  lynch mobs  hooliganism  riots  flash Crowds  Panics  escape  acquisition

Queues sometimes break down into crowds, mobs, and panics Crowds  The Who Concert tragedy  The Love Parade disaster

 Rumors as collective processes  Mass delusions  The War of the Worlds broadcast  Psychogenic illness Collective movements

Trends Fads Crazes Trends (fashion, etc.) Social Movements Reformist Revolutionary Reactionary Communitarian Collective movements

The “Arab Spring” as a social movement The surprising events of the Arab Spring are still being discussed and debated, but some political scientists have suggested that these were high-tech rebellions. The protesters became what technology expert Howard Rheingold (2002) calls a smart mob: a social movement organized through the use of information technology, including cell phones and the Internet.

Contagion Theories Deindi- viduation Theory Emergent Norm Theories Social Identity Theory Collective Dynamics

Le Bon’s crowd psychology  Contagion: The spread of behaviors, attitudes, and affect through social collectives Social network analyses of collective processes  Gladwell’s analysis of connectors, mavens, salespeople Contagion

 Similarities among those who join crowds and collectives  Relative deprivation: people whose attainments fall below their expectations are more likely to join social movements. “Every man has a mob self and an individual self, in varying proportions” D. H. Lawrence van Zomeren et al., 2004 Convergence

Conditions of Deindividuation Anonymity Responsibility Group membership Others (overload, drug usage, chanting) State of Deindividuation Loss of self-awareness ↓ Loss of self-regulation 1. Low self-monitoring 2. Failure of normative control 3. Decline in self- generated reinforcements 4. Failure to form long- range plans Deindividuated Behaviors Behavior is emotional, impulsive, irrational, regressive, with high intensity 1. Not under stimulus control 2. Counternormative 3. Pleasurable Deindividuation

 reduced responsibility (diffusion of responsibility)  membership in large groups  heightened state of physiological arousal Deindividuation

The Deindividuated State  Research suggests that the deindividuated state has two basic components:  reduced self ‑ awareness (minimal self ‑ consciousness, etc.)  altered experience (disturbances in concentration and judgment, etc.)  Support for this model is limited

Turner and Killian’s emergent norm theory  Crowds often develop unique standards for behavior and that these atypical norms exert a powerful influence on behavior. Turning the strange into the normal Example: Baiting Crowds Emergent norms

Collective behavior is sustained by identity processes  collectives sustain rather than undermine individuals’ identities  ingroup/outgroup processes increase self-categorization  individuation: collective behavior in some cases represents an attempt to reestablish a sense of individuality Social identity

The “crowd ‑ as ‑ mad” assumption: Collectives differ from more routine groups in kind rather than in degree This view of collectives is questionable: Like groups in general, collectives are often misunderstood and mismanaged Collectives are groups

Collectives, like many groups are misunderstood and mismanaged. Fortunate, the scientifici study of groups provides a means to gain a deeper understanding of groups and their dynamics. Collectives are groups

Crowds and Collectives Collectives: Forms and Features What are collectives? Gatherings Crowds Collective movements Social movements Collective Dynamics Contagion Convergence Deindividuation Emergent norms Social identity Collectives are groups Myth of the madding crowd Studying groups Review