Deindividuation. Flashcards
Introduction. What is aggressive behaviour? Deindividuation overview?
Aggression is a hostile behaviour which is usually inhibited by social norms.
Deindividuation is a loss of someone’s identity; people lose a sense of themselves when they are a part of a group or crowd.
Aggression is thought to come from a decreased sense of self-awareness which leads to the loss of inhibitions.
The theory is based from the faceless crowd theory from Gustave Le Bon who looked at how people can lose themselves in a crowd.
The nature of deindividuation? Psychological state? Anonymity?
Deindividuation is a psychological state which comes from low self esteem and decreased self concerns.
It causes an increase in aggressive behaviour which goes against social norms.
Anonymity is a key point to the nature of deindividuation which is when people can become aggressive due to uniform or an altered conciousness which can come from drugs or alcohol.
Research evidence. Rehm et al?
Rehm et al provided research support with anonymity by getting a random group of children and playing a football game.
He randomly assigned one group of children to one team where they wore orange shirts and another group who wore normal street clothes.
He found that those in the orange shirts played more aggressively which supports the idea of anonymity causing the aggressive behaviour because the team lost a sense of themselves in the crowd.
Process of deindividuation? Zimbardo + diminished awareness?
People usually refrain from aggressive behaviours because they are frowned upon in society.
According to Zimbardo, being a part of a crowd can diminish the awareness of our own individuality.
The larger the crowd/group, the greater the anonymity.
There is a diminished fear of negative consequences and there isn’t any guilt from the actions.
Anonymity weakens the barriers to antisocial behaviours that are usually built on guilt or shame.
Research evidence. Mullen et al + newspaper lynchings?
Mullen provided research evidence with the faceless crowd by looking at six newspaper lynchings in the United States.
He found that the larger the mob, the greater the savagery when killing the victims.
Leads back to the idea that the greater the crowed the bigger the anonymity.
Evaluation. Zimbardo + female undergraduates.
Zimbardo provided support for the theory by using a group of four female undergraduates.
They were asked to administer electric shocks to other students to ‘aid learning.’
One group wore big bulky lab coats and hoods and they were addressed as a whole group and not as individuals, this was the deindividuated group.
The other group wore normal clothes and wore big name tags, this was the non deindividuated group.
It was found that the deindividuated condition administered the electric shocks for twice as long compared to the normal group.
Supports the idea of anonymity and deindividuation.
Evaluation. Cannavale et al + Diener et al + gender bias?
Cannavale et al found that the theory was gender bias as males and females responded differently to deindividuation.
The increase in aggression was only obtained in male groups.
This was also supported by Diener et al who found that a greater disinhibitation with aggression was only found in males; which shows that males are the ones who are more prone to aggressive behaviours.
Evaluation. Cultural differences + Robert Watson?
There has been support across cultures which came from Robert Watson.
The information was collected from 23 different societies where warriors changed their appearance when they were going to war.
Watson looked at the extent to which they killed and mutilated their victims.
It was found that those who changed their appearance were more savage and showed a big increase in their aggressive behaviour.
