Deindividuation Flashcards
What is deindividuation?
The process by which someones loses their sense of identity when part of a large group
Why do people become deindividualised?
Because they are anonymous as part of this large group and so are more likely to act in an antisocial and uncivilised way. There are social norms in which people abide to, but in a large group where everyone is ‘faceless’ people ignore these social norms and act upon their own accord, which could be in an aggressive manor.
Deindividuation comes from the classic crowd theory
This states that in a crowd the individual loses self control and becomes capable of acting in a way that goes against personal/social norms. This is due to the anonymity, suggestibility and contagion of the group.
What is individuated behaviour?
Guided by private and public morals
Describe Zimbardo’s research support for deindividuation
Zimbardo came to the conclusion that anonymity increased aggressive behaviour. Zimbardo split groups up into the deindividuated group and the ‘normal’ group. The deindividuated group wore coats with hoods and remained completely anonymous. The other group wore normal clothes, had huge name badges and were introduced to each other-not anonymous. They were asked to give electric shocks to others in their groups. Those in the deindividuated group shocked the others for twice as long as the other group. Because the deindividuated group had lost their sense of identity, their aggressive behaviour increased supporting deindividuation leads to aggression. HOWEVER, this is unethical.
Another perspective to why people become deindividuated is because of reduced self-awareness
this is where you are part of a large group and hence lose your focus, so you lose your self-awareness and this is what causes people to act aggressively.
Research on deindividuation increasing pro social behaviour
Research has found that deindividuation can lead to either pro social or anti social behaviour depending on situational factors. When pro social environmental cues were present, participants performed more altruistic tasks e.g. giving money than antisocial ones. E.g. taking money
How can you counteract that deindividuation increases pro social behaviour
A study conducted on trick or treating children showed that when part of a large group, they were more likely to act in an antisocial manner. One experimenter presented the children with a bowl of sweets and told them to only take one while he left. Another experimenter was observing the children and found when the children were in large groups, they took more than one sweet.Supporting that being anonymous and part of a group leads to increased antisocial behaviour. Study has high ecological validity.
deindividuation research is beta-bias
It ignores gender differences. A study concluded that female and male groups respond differently under deindividuation. An increase in aggression was found in male groups only, but the theory states that everyone increases in antisocial behaviour when deindividuated. Males are more prone to the disinhibition of aggressive behaviour.
Explain deindividuation in Zimbardo’s original study.
Half the participants assumed the role of prisoner whereas the other half, the prison guards. Both sets were in uniforms, meaning they had become anonymous. They had a weakened self-identity of themselves because they were acting among strangers as part of a group. The guards became deindividuated and hence supporting the idea of deindividuation as an explanation for aggressive behaviour.
Real world application
Out of 21 suicide leap cases, 10 had been accompanied by a ‘bating’ crowd. These people would gather as a group, at night and ‘egg’ the people on acting as a mob. Those in the crowd were deindividuated and had lost their sense identity. However, the jumping of the individual cannot be blamed on the crowd because the experimenter cannot count for extraneous variable, so would be morally wrong.
Cultural differences
A strength is that is applies cross culturally. Warriors across the world were analyses about to what extent they change their appearance and to what extent they harm their victims, it was found that those who changed their appearance massively, the more destructive they were to their victims. Supporting become anonymous in a crowd allows someone to be more aggressive and so supports the theory.
There is also a lack of support
A meta analysis concluded there is insufficient evidence for the major claims of deindividuation, weakening the theory and meaning more research is needed.
what are the 4 evaluation points?
gender bias
cultural differences
lack of support
real world application
