1. Social Movements and Social change
Collective Behavior
Social Movements and Social change

2. Think About This…
You are sitting in a movie theater watching a film, and the film breaks. How does the audience respond?
Why do you think the audience would respond that way?
If you saw a person being attacked at the State Fair with hundreds of people around would you help?

3. A. Collective Behavior Social behavior is patterned and predictable
Collective Behavior: Relatively spontaneous social behavior that occurs when people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations
Social scientists have generally found collective behavior to be difficult to study because:
Range of material covered is enormous
It is relatively short-lived, spontaneous, and emotional
It usually involves large numbers of people who do not know one another

4. B. Characteristics of Collectivities
Collectivity: A gathering of people who have limited interaction with one another and do not share clearly defined, conventional norms or a sense of group unity
Factors that distinguish collectivities from social groups
Limited interaction
Interaction among members of collectivities is limited and sometimes nonexistent
Unclear norms
In collectivities, norms for behavior are either unclear or unconventional
Limited unity
Members of collectivities seldom share a sense of group unity

5. C. Types of Collective Behavior
Crowd: Temporary gathering of people who are in close enough proximity to interact
Herbert Blumer separates crowds into 4 classifications
Casual Crowd = Least organized, most temporary, people interact little if at all
Ex: People waiting in line to buy movie tickets; people gathered at a beach
Conventional Crowd = More structured; people may not interact with one another very much, but they act according to established rules of behavior and usually gather for a common purpose
Ex: Funeral, public lecture, baseball game
Expressive Crowd = Has no goal or purpose, forms around emotionally charged activities
Ex: Rock concert
Acting Crowd = Violent crowd; Emotions are intense and usually hostile and destructive and usually focus on a particular targetEx: Opposing fans fighting at a sporting event

6. D. Types of Collective Behavior
Mob: An emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific destructive or violent goal
Usually has leaders who urge the group toward the common action and who enforce conformity
Although they are usually unstable and limited in duration, their actions pose a threat to social order and challenge authority
Ex: Lynch mobs
Riot: A collection of people who erupt into generalized destructive behavior, the result of which is social disorder
Less unified and less focused than mobs
People who participate typically lack access to power and vent their frustrations through destructive actions
Often begin when long-standing tensions are triggered by a single event
Ex: L.A. riots after Rodney King incident (1992)

7. E. Types of Collective Behavior
Panic: A spontaneous and uncoordinated group action to escape some perceived threat
Generally occur when people believe that their means of escape are limited or soon to be closed off.
Most likely to occur in situations that are outside the realm of everyday experience (fires, floods, earthquakes, etc)
Moral Panic: Occurs when people become fearful about behavior that appears to threaten society’s core values

8. F. Types of Collective Behavior
Mass Hysteria: An unfounded anxiety shared by people who can be scattered over a wide geographic area
Anxiety involves irrational beliefs and behaviors that spread among the population, sometimes unwittingly fueled by the media
Usually short-lived, vanishing as people come to realize that their anxieties have no basis in fact
Ex: Salem Witch Trials and Executions

9. G. Types of Collective Behaviors
Fashions: Refer to enthusiastic attachments among large numbers of people for particular styles of appearance or behavior.
Most related to clothing, but any cultural artifact that gains widespread acceptance can be a fashion
Prominent in industrialized societies for 2 reasons
Change is valued and associated with progress in such societies
Industrialized societies typically emphasize social mobility

10. H.Types of Collective Behavior
Fads: An unconventional object, action, or idea that a large number of people are attached to for a very short period of time
John Lofland divided fans into 4 groups:
Objects: Hula Hoops, mood rings, Beanie Babies
Activities: Are often bizarre (swallowing live goldfish)
Ideas: Attempting to see the future through horoscopes
Personalities: Elvis, Michael Jackson, Princess Diana

11. What are some current fashions and fads in this school/community?

12. I. Types of Collective Behavior
Rumor: An unverified piece of information that is spread rapidly from one person to another
May be true or false and thrive when large numbers of people lack definite information about a subject of interest to them
Content is likely to change as it travels from person to person
Ex: Telephone game
Urban Legend: Stories that teach a lesson and seem realistic but are untrue
Arise and spread because of unclear situations
Seem true because they are usually attributed to specific times and places
Stories quickly spread in order to clarify situations by teaching moral lessons

13. J. Type of Collective Behavior
Public Opinion: Collection of differing attitudes that members of a public have about a particular issue
Subject to rapid change because members of a public very often change their views on issues
Propaganda: An organized and deliberate attempt to shape public opinion
The most effective way to influence what people think

14. K. Explaining Collective Behavior
Contagion Theory: (Gustave LeBon) The hypnotic power of a crowd encourages people to give up their individuality to the stronger pull of the group.
Individuals become anonymous
The crowd becomes a single organism operating under one collective mind
3 factors give crowds power over individual
Because of the large numbers in a crowd, individuals gain an anonymity that makes them feel unconquerable
Spread of emotion is so rapid and contagious that it overtakes the members of a crowd
Members of a crowd rapidly enter a state of suggestibility which allows them to become vulnerable to manipulations of a charismatic leader
Limitations
Studies have shown no individual that a collective mind exists in crowds
Behavior is usually not as uniform as the theory suggests

15. L. Explaining Collective Behavior
Emergent-Norm Theory
The people in a crowd are often faced with a situation in which traditional norms of behavior do not apply.
Gradually, new norms emerge when a leader initiates new behavior.
These new norms provide a common motivation for group action where none existed before
Ex: When a film breaks in the movie theater, one person may start to stomp his/her feet. Even though it does nothing to fix the film, people begin to join and they often feel obliged to conform to the new group norm

16. M.Explaining Collective Behavior
Value-Added Theory: Explains crowd behavior as a process that moves from step to step.
There are 6 basic preconditions for collective behavior
Structural conduciveness = Surrounding social structure that makes it possible for a particular type of collective behavior to occur
Structural strain = Social conditions that put strain on people and thus encourage them to seek some collective means of relief
Growth and spread of generalized belief = Makes the structural strain personally meaningful for people
Precipitating factors = Triggering mechanisms that set off the behavior
Mobilization for action = First 4 preconditions set stage for people to act
Social control = Can be controlled if mechanisms exist to prevent or minimize the situation
The more pre-conditions that are present, the greater the likelihood of a particular type of collective behavior

17. Activity
In groups create a visual diagram that provides simple graphics illustrating each type of collective behavior described
Label and summarize each type of behavior
Types of Collective Behavior
Crowds
Mobs
Riots
Panic
Mass Hysteria
Fashions
Fads
Rumors
Urban Legends
Public Opinion