17Crowds 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?

GatheringGroup CrowdGatherings

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

Panicsescape 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 Movement

s

• 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

AnonymityResponsibilityGroup membershipOthers (overload, drug usage, chanting)

State of Deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness

↓Loss of self-regulation1. Low self-

monitoring2. Failure of

normative control3. Decline in self-

generated reinforcements

4. Failure to form long-range plans

Deindividuated Behaviors

Behavior is emotional, impulsive, irrational, regressive, with high intensity1. Not under

stimulus control2. Counternormative3. 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 CollectivesCollectives: Forms and FeaturesWhat are

collectives?

Gatherings

Crowds

Collective movements

Social movements

Collective Dynamics

Contagion

Convergence

Deindividuation

Emergent norms

Social identity

Collectives are groupsMyth of

the madding

crowd

Studying groups

Review