Lesson 8 Deindividuation Flashcards
What is Deindividuation
A psychological state in which an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of a social group, when in a crowd or if anonymous.
How did gustave le Bon explain Deindividuation
Deindividuation was a concept used by him to explain crowd behaviour. Because on our own we are easily identified, so our behaviour is constrained to social norms. These social norms discourage aggressive behaviours. But as a crowd, we are able to behave in ways that we couldn’t before due to being less identifiable and more free. We lose sense of personal identity and responsibility for our behaviour. Responsibility is shared throughout the crowd so we experience less guilt for our aggressive actions towards others
What has Deindividuation been used to explain
It’s been used to explain violence in prisons, as well as sporting events where large numbers of people are in close proximity to each other
What did zimbardo distinguish between?
Individuated and de-individuated behaviour. Individuated behaviour is rational and normative (conforming to social norms) whereas de-individuated behaviours are rash, emotional, aggressive and disinhibited (breaks from social norms).
What did Dixon and Mahendran find?
A major factor in Deindividuated behaviour is anonymity - we have less fear of retribution because we feel anonymous and unidentifiable as part of a huge faceless crowd. The bigger the crowd, the more anonymous we are.
Is aggression due to anonymity, or the consequence of anonymity?
The consequence of anonymity and Dunn and Rodger’s explained this in terms of two types of self awareness:
Private self awareness - concerns about how we pay attention to our own feelings and behaviour. This is reduced as part of a crowd. Our attention becomes focused outwardly to the events around us, so we pay less attention to our thoughts and feelings.
Public self awareness - refers to how much we care what others think of our behaviour. This is also reduced in crowds. We realise we are less likely to be judged by others so we become less accountable for our actions
What did Dodd find?
Asked 229 students that if they could do anything humanely possible without reproduction, what would they do. There were three rosters that rated responses into social and anti social responses. 36% antisocial and 26% were criminal. This links deindividuation with anonymity and aggression
Strengths deindividuation
Research support - Diner conducted a natural experiment examining the effects of deindividuation on aggression. On Halloween, concealed rates observed 1300 child trick or treaters under diff conditions; either being anonymous, non anonymous, part of a group, or alone. The children were given the opportunity to steal sweets and money. Those grouped and/or anonymous stole at 57% compared to 21% I’m the identifiable lot. Demonstrates the power of anonymity and crowd behaviour on aggression
Malmouth and check conducted research in North America and asked nuniversiry students ‘would you rape if not get caugt’ and 35% said yes, supporting the theory that deindividuarion can increase aggressive behaviour
Weakness deindividuation
Difficult to separate the effects if deindividuation from other effects like social learning theory. Some sporting events like football, that has huge crowds, has a long history of violence, yet sports like cricket or rugby that still have large crowds, see no aggression. This may not be deindividuation, but a result of cultural factors internalised by social learning.
A final limitation is that deindividuated behaviour is actually normative rather than anti normative. This theory argues that we behave in ways contrary to social norms when we are less aware of our private identity, however the social identity model of deindividuation argues that deindividuated behaviour actually leads to behaviour that conforms to group norms - which can either be pro social or anti social. This is because identity shifts from private to group.
