1. SOCI 3006 – Collective Behaviour
May 2007

2. 1. What is collective behaviour?
any event during which a group of people engages in unusual
behaviour – that is, ‘non-normative’ behaviour
behaviour that falls outside the usual, ‘normative’ expectations
for behaviour
norms – the rules regulating people’s behaviour in
particular situations – they are situation-specific, and may
over time become institutionalized (folkways, mores, laws)
e.g. riots, fads, fashions, social movements, rumours
examples???

3. 1. What is collective behaviour? (cont’d)
originally thought collective behaviour mostly mob behaviour
or mass hysteria – because it was assumed that collective
behaviour was largely irrational, a function of biological/
psychological factors that emerge in a crowd situation and
cause individuals to act in irrational ways
(note Durkheim here, along with Le Bon)
collective behaviour can take a wide variety of forms (e.g.
‘swarming’ and bullying behaviour; sports riots)
like other forms of behaviour, collective behaviour can
become institutionalized – it can become normative
itself – e.g. ‘goal-posting’ at college football games – or
‘streaking’ in the 1960’s

4. 1. What is collective behaviour? (cont’d)
the key question from a sociological perspective: how does
collective behaviour, behaviour in groups that did not exist
before and is outside the norms, arise? What causes it?
What effect does it have? How does it change over time?
What does it tell us about social behaviour generally?
collective behaviour can have both positive and negative
effects – any examples you can think of?

5. 2. Why study collective behaviour?
most of the time people do what we expect them to do – why?
the importance of culture – socialization, the internalization
of beliefs, values, norms (folkways, mores, laws) and the
impact on personality.
what does collective behaviour tells us about behaviour in
general?
to understand why it happens (e.g. rumours)
to be able to predict when it will happen
to be able to control it
it is interesting
reveals information about ‘typical’ behaviour

6. 3. History of the Study of Collective Behaviour
Mackay (1841) – Extraordinary Popular Delusions &
The Madness of Crowds
Le Bon (1895) – The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind –
note here influence of French Revolution, and the events
stemming from this – the origins of ‘contagion theory’ – that
collective behaviour can cause animal instincts to be
brought out
Robert Park, Ernest Burgess (1921) An Introduction to the
Science of Sociology – another version of contagion theory
Herbert Blumer – the concept of the ‘acting crowd’
Contagion Theory fell out of favour beginning in the 50’s
and in particular in the 1960’s

7. 3. History of the Study of Collective Behaviour (cont’d)
Turner and Killian (1957) Collective Behaviour – development
of the ‘emergent norm’ perspective – that collective behaviour
is a product of new norms that emerge from novel situations –
note here W.I. Thomas and the ‘definition of the situation’
example – new norms emerging in an situation of violent
behaviour, or in a university dormitory
individuals have their own reasons for involvement – but
the group is the catalyst for the new emergent norms
the Asch experiments

8. 3. History of the Study of Collective Behaviour (cont’d)
Smelser (1962) – Theory of Collective Behavior - development
of the ‘value-added’ perspective – collective behaviour as a
response to social conditions that leads to unusual behaviour
(e.g. joining a protest group) – the behaviour though is
rational to the participants
6 steps: structural conduciveness, structural strain, generalized
belief, precipitating factors, mobilization of participants,
reactions of agents of social control (note: MADD)
collective behaviour can work to relieve social strain

9. 3. History of the Study of Collective Behaviour (cont’d)
SBI/Sociocybernetic Perspective (McPhail) – emphasis on
understanding how people control, regulate their own
behaviour, how this influences the behaviour of others in
interaction, and how this can ‘spread’ to form the basis for
collective behaviour
Individualist Theories – ‘Convergence Theory’, ‘Learning
Theory’ , Social Identity Theory’ – focus on individual
personality traits, the coming together of these in combination
with one another, igniting group behaviour (e.g. a bunch
of gullible people coming together).
Miller and Dollard (1941) Social Leaning and Imitation, also
Hogg and Abrams (1988), Social Identifications
group behaviour as the sum of the parts?

10. 3. History of the Study of Collective Behaviour (cont’d)
social movements – a more organized, sustained, goal
oriented force for social change
Kornhauser (1959) – The Politics of Mass Society -
the development of mass society theory – that social
movements attract socially isolated, marginalized people to
causes
relative deprivation theory – Stouffer (1949) – the importance
of perceptions of equality
resource mobilization theory – Zald and Ash (1966)
McAdam (1982) – political process theory – an extension
of Smelser’s theory