Posting by Boeun Kim (김보은)_W 12

Collective Behavior

summary :

 

  Collective behavior is by spontaneous movement from within people. Neither obedience, nor deviant. The notions is vague and also scholars have been paid less attention to this behavior.

 

Then, why study collective behavior?

 

 In past, historically, collective behavior have been existed with big and small accidents. So we study collective behavior to provide tools to deal with these accidents. Next followings are various forms of collective behavior.

Picture 1

 

# Crowds

Blumer(1951) divided crowd into four types : casual, conventional, expressive, and acting.

 

- diffuse crowds : collective behavior is diffused or dispersed over large distances.

 

# Theories of crowd behavior

 

- Contagion theory :

 According to Gustave LeBon (1896), crowds are hypnotized when they are together. So they become irrational and do emotional actions and this phenomena diffuses like contagion.

 

- Convergence theory :

  The behavior of a crowd is not an emergent property of the crowd but is a result of like-minded individuals coming together.

 

- Emergent-norm theory :

As a typical explanation of crowd psychology, it criticizes contagion theory and convergence theory. It emphasis that some norms emerged from specific places despite the situation of collective behavior, and this pressure to do same is the reason of collective behavior.

 

- Crowds as "gatherings" :

  It approaches to what brings people together as a gathering rather than what they do once gathered. In other words, the important thing is variation in gatherings.

 

# Panic

It is emotion which people feel when they are in emergent situations.

# Moral panic

Moral panic is a strong emotion which is expressed in problematic situation to threat social order. It involves controversies and social tensions because the problems are taboo in this situations.

 

# Riots

Expression to dissatisfied and opposite situations. Generally, it occurred in poor working or living conditions. Some riots destroy public properties.

 

# Mass hysteria

Expression of uncontrolled fears or emotions. It is groups near-panic reaction to specific situations. It relates to moral panic.

 

# Fads

It is situation in specific period of some society in which specific thinks, expression methods, or products are spreaded.

 

# Rumors

 

Unverified explanations about something among people.

 

Rumor’s basic 3 characteristics.

1) Orally transmitted

2) Provide informations on person, accident, or situation

3) Make satisfaction of community’s emotional needs or express these.

 

Various types of rumors

1) Pipe dream rumors

2) Bogie or fear rumors

3) Wedge-driving rumors

 

  These are changing when they are passed down. And negative things are more passed down than positive things. Also, sometimes rumors are used to political strategy by media such as "rumor bomb".

 

 

Interesting points & Discussions :

 

  The rumor’s basic 3 characteristics was very interesting because we can find these rumors around our society. They are all orally transmitted (well, I think now the internet is our mouth), provide informations on person, accident, or situation, and make satisfaction of community’s emotional needs or express these.

 

‘Have you ever been in a crowd and done something you would not have done otherwise?’

-> I think this question require us an experiment of contagion theory. When we are gathered and become crowd, we feel we are brave and we do some great things. And this is the reason why we do something we would not have done otherwise. Well, but I think sometime it makes meaningful accidents.

 Think Gwanghwamun assembly. the spreading feelings and thinks in that place makes people one to require something. In that place, people let out their voices which maybe they would not have done otherwise.

references (Attribution) :

- picture 1 : By U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos (130503-A-HJ139-073) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

- picture 2 : By Hangyeorae newspaper