Collective Behaviour Flashcards
What are ‘group mind’ theories?
A primordial, unconscious group ‘mind’ which people have in common, which guides sentiments and behaviour. Gustave Le Bon (1895) - submerged in the crowd, the individual mind disappears, to be replaced by the ‘racial unconscious’.
What is the reaction against group mind theories?
Individualism. Floyd Allport - you can explain anything that happens in crowds through methods in individual psychology.
Individualism - how is collective behaviour possible?
Scipio Sigele (1892) - crowds are largely comprised of people who are criminal ‘by nature’ - hence commonality of violence/criminality. Allport’s answer: the convergence of similar individuals and their social facilitation of each other’s primitive behaviour.
What are problems of group mind and individualism?
Problems of assumption - both linked collective behaviour with mindless violence. Can’t easily explain non-violent crowds (e.g. Martin Luther King’s supporters). Problem of evidence - both relied on secondary, selective and partial evidence. They took ‘crowd violence’ out of context (self-defence depicted as meaningless outburst).
Group mind and individualism are discredited theories.
What is interactionism?
Le Bon denies the reality of the individual in groups, Allport denies the reality of the group - both are one sided. Gestalt suggested the whole is different than the sum of its parts. Those elements take their meaning from their position in that whole. Shows how individual behaviour can become group behaviour
What did Sherif (1936) suggest about interactionism?
Group norms are produced within the group, the internalised by individuals and used as a frame of reference to define social reality and drive behaviour. ‘Autokintetic effect’ experiment - changed individual estimate indicated that group estimate had been internalised.
What are key ideas of interactionism?
No longer assuming ‘the mindless and violent crowd’ as basis for collective behaviour. Shared, internalised representation of the group in each individual enables collective behaviour. This representation comes about through interpersonal interaction - talking to each other.
Is interpersonal interaction itself necessary for collective behaviour?
The minimal group paradigm (Tajfel et al) - looking at basic condition under which people behave in group like ways. Asked boys to allocate rewards to own group and other group. Boys favoured own group, even though they didn’t know anyone in their own group. Behave in a group like way, even without any interaction.
What did Turner (1982) suggest?
A new hypothesis about how and when we act as group members - self-categorisation theory.
What are the key principles of self-categorisation theory?
- Cognitive representations of the self take the form of self-categories (grouping of self and other stimuli in relation to others). Social identities consist of self-categories.
- These self-categories exist at different levels of abstraction, from the most exclusive to the most inclusive. This means that all of these are forms of self - the collective self is just as real as the personal self.
- Salience of self-categories operate through fit / perceiver readiness. Fit involves two parts - comparative fit (differences within a group are less than the difference between the group and another), and normative fit (do group members act the way we’d expect). Perceiver readiness variables = memory, knowledge, commitment.
- Salience leads to the accentuation of perceived within-group similarities and inter-group differences.
- Social influence operates through shared self-categorisation - we follow others’ behaviour to the extent that they are in-group members. The most influential are those that embody the category - ‘prototypes’.
How is collective behaviour possible?
In social categorisation theory terms, collective behaviour is a function of people in a crowd self-stereotyping = applying shared social category/group characteristics (including norms) to themselves. Self-stereotyping also means seeing self as interchangeable with others in the group. Self-stereotyping is also known as ‘depersonalisation’.
What is the example of the St Pauls riot?
Urban riots of the 1980s. Set of by police raid on local cafe, the cafe had symbolic and practical importance to the local community. Police forced to flee, were trapped in the cafe, police vehicle set alight, eventually the police had to leave the area entirely. After police had left, the crowd took charge of traffic control, stopping suspected police cars entering the area. Participants in the riot shared a social identity. Defined in terms of locality, desire for freedom, and an antagonistic relationship with the police. Collective behaviour in the riot was limited and patterned in line with this identity. Only those who share the identity participated and were influenced by others.
How were people able to act as one in the St Pauls riot?
- Group mind - Le Bon would mindless violence and ‘contagious’ influence - but there were clear limits to behaviour, only certain behaviours spread through the crowd, and only certain people were influenced or influential.
- Interactionism - interpersonal interaction t produce emergent norm. But extended interaction wasn’t necessary: norms changed quickly.
- Self-categorisation - self-stereotyping. Shift from personal identity to shared identity. Rioters shared the norm of getting the police out of St Pauls’, based on their shared social identity. Nature of targets reflected featured of shared social identity.
What are implications of self cat (consequences of depersonalisation?)
- Collective behaviour - adherence to group norms, social influence from in-group members, feeling of unity/being a group.
- Attraction to the in-group.
- Self-sacrifice.
- Sharing perceptions with the in-group (trusting their judgement).
- Stereotyping - when we see the world in ‘group’ ways, its because we are in a social location where it makes sense.
