PSYC 363 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: 1980 St. Pauls Riot, Gustave Le Bon, Crowd Psychology
13 Dec 2018
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Document Summary
Crowd psychology (gustav le bon, 1896): the crowd: a study of the popular mind . Felt that crowd extinguish normal psychological capacities and reveal our primal nature (reicher, 2001) But, reasons to be suspicious of le bon"s influential narrative on crowds: (reicher, 1984) crowds are a site of meaningful social action underpinned by shared social identity . The riot started after a large-scale invasion of police into a predominantly black, low income neighborhood (st paul"s) Motivation: fighting back against the oppression of blacks. Only police (and some media taking photos) were physically attacked by the crowd. Violent destruction of property was socially patterned. There were clear limits to the violence (eg only certain shops or cars were attacked, those constructed as belonging to the outgroup of police or those who might be helping them) Shared social identity was guiding participant"s motivations, actions, and targets. They were looking at each other the whole time.
