Deindividuation Flashcards
What is meant by De-individuation?
A psychological sate which promotes higher levels of aggression as a result of a loss of personal identity.
Why can de-individuation lead to aggressive behaviour?
Because our behaviours become anti-normative and dis-inhibited.
What happens when we become part of a crowd? (Le Bon 1895)
ANONYMOUS lose restraint/behave in ways we wouldn’t normally because shared RESPONSIBILITY and disregard of norms, laws and guilt. i.e London riots
Zimbardo believed that de-individuation leads to aggressive behaviour because it promotes emotional and irrational behaviour due to a loss of…?
Self awareness.
Private self awareness: focusing on internal aspects of self (think/feel)
Public self awareness: focusing on external aspects of self
Why does the reduction of private self awareness lead to de-individuation and aggression
Because the individual has lost their sense of true self.
One condition that promotes de-individuation and aggressive behaviour is darkness; why?
Anonymity, individuals are less visible.
One condition that promotes de-individuation and aggressive behaviour is alcohol/drug use; why?
Impulsivity, lower inhibition (restraint)
Arousal, heightened emotions.
One condition that promotes de-individuation and aggressive behaviour is uniform; why?
Anonymity, individuals are less distinguished from one another.
One condition that promotes de-individuation and aggressive behaviour Masks/disguises; Why?
Anonymity, Individuals are less identifiable
One condition that promotes de-individuation and aggressive behaviour is strong group feelings, Why?
Arousal, heightened emotions
External focus, reduces focus on personal beliefs
Who were the participants in Zimbardo’s supporting experimental evidence for the role of anonymity?
Groups of four female undergraduate students who were required to deliver electric shocks to another student to ‘aid learning’
What are three characteristics of the control (individuated) condition?
Given instructions individually
Wore normal clothing with large nametags
Introduced to eachother by name
What are three characteristics of the experimental (deindividuated) condition?
Addressed as a group while given instructions
Wore bulky lab coats and hoods
Not introduced to eachother
Where were the participants seated and could they/were told they were going to see?
Ppts able to see eachother
While seated at the shock machine
Both sets of ppts were told that they could see the people being shocked
What was the difference between the two conditons?
Participants in the Deindividuation condition shocked the learner for twice as long as the identifiable participants.
What does wearing a disguise and being part of a group help to create?
A deindividuated state of aggression.
What data Walton’s real-life supporting evidence for the role of anonymity include?
warriors’ in 23 tribal societies.
investigating the extent to which appearance such as body paint, costumes, and piercings, was related to aggressive behaviour.
What did Walton find?
He found that in societies where appearance is the most altered during war, they had high incidences of killing, torture, and mutilation.
What does wearing a disguise and being part of a group help to create?
A deindividuated state of aggression.
Mann (1981)
Mullen (1986)
Suicide jumpers are often ‘baited’ when large crowds gather at night (Mann 1981)
Larger a lynching mob the greater the violence tended to be (Mullen 1986)
Johnsen & Downing
Replicated Zimbardo’s study
Ppts in KKK clothes gave most intense shocks, nurses least and control in the middle.
What does this do to the validity of deindividuation by itself causes aggression and suggest?
decreases
could be down to conformity to stereotypes/social role
Gergan ‘Deviance in the dark’?
Strangers
No rules
Immediate intimacy
Decreases the validity
