SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Cognate, Gustave Le Bon, Collective Behavior

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Social Psychology
• Course: SOCPSY 1Z03
• Professor: Paul Glavin

Document Summary

Collective behaviour concerted on one or more dimensions. Collective behaviour: is two or more persons engaged in behaviour judged common or. Crowds are temporary gatherings of people in close physical proximity, engaging in a joint activity. O(cid:373)e argue that a (cid:862)(cid:373)e(cid:374)tal u(cid:374)it(cid:455) of the (cid:272)ro(cid:449)d(cid:863) e(cid:454)ists. This unanimity leads to participants to think, feel, and act in ways that are different. November 30,2016 than if each member were alone. Crowds create anonymity and reduce perceptions of personal responsibility. Le bon: individual identity and self-control disappears, giving way to primitive, barbaric state. In dense crowds, imitation of behaviours spreads quickly, creating appearance of a unanimous mass. Le bon developed his classical model of crowds in response to: The crowd seen as a threat to existing social order. Principle interest was therefore to repress and control crowds. Seven myths about crowds: irrationality, emotionality, suggestibility, destructiveness, spontaneity, anonymity, unanimity.