deindividuation Flashcards
what is Le Bon’s description of deindividuation?
When a person is in a crowd, they become anonymous, losing their sense of self identity. Responsibility becomes shared throughout the group, leaving the individual free to act in ways that would usually be constrained by social norms. This means that less guilt is experienced for aggressive behaviour.
what does the individuation state mean?
a person separated from everything with unique character by possessing their own needs, goals, and desires in comparison to other people.
what is the Deindividuated state?
A psychological state in which an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of the social group.
what are the conditions for deinvidividuation?
prentice dunn and rogers
private self awareness = how we pay attention to our own feelings = reduced when in a group
public self awareness =. how much we care about what other people think of our behaviour = less likely to be judged
what is Dodds research into deindividuation?
Dodd asked 229 undergraduate psychology students “if you would do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do ?” 36% of the responses were antisocial, 26% were criminal. = demonstrates the connection between deindividuation as a result of anonymity and subsequent aggression.
evaluation: strength
research support = Douglas and Mcgarty
Douglas and Mcgarty looked at aggressive online behaviour in chat rooms and uses of instant messaging. They found a strong correlation between anonymity and sending or posting threatening messages. (most threatening sent by those hiding identity)
suggests the existence of a link between anonymity, deindividuation and aggressive behaviour due to more social media uses.
evaluation: weakness
lack of support (dark room study)
Gergen et al selected groups of 8 participants who were all strangers, placed them in a dark room and were told to do whatever they wanted. (guaranteed to never meet each other). They began to kiss and touch each other
- study was repeated but they were guaranteed to meet face to face after and the amount of kissing and touching declined significantly
evaluation: weakness
prosocial behaviour can also play a role
Johnson and Downing conducted a study where female participants had to give a fake electric shock to a confederate. One condition = dressed as Ku Klux Klan hiding their face second condition = dressed as nurses control = wore own clothes
those dressed as Ku Klux Klan gave the most shocks and nurses gave less (prosocial role of being a nurse)
what does the ku klux klan study show about aggression?
both aggression and prosocial behaviour are potential outcomes of deindividuation and normative cues can determine the situation
evaluation: research support (XBOX)
deindividuation theory can help us to understand aggressive behaviour in online gaming services such as XBOX
there is a reduction of personal identity, players use handles to identify themselves. Game playing in such an environment is arousing and immersive
