LS8 - Social Psychological Explanations - De-Individuation Flashcards
De-Individuation
When an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of their social group.
Crowd Behaviour
In a crowd we lose our senses of individual self-identity and responsibility for our behaviour, disregarding norms/laws as responsibility is shared throughout the crowd.
De-Individuation And Aggression
In an individuated state our mind is rational and normative but when de-individuated our behaviours are emotional, irrational and impulsive. Meaning we lose self-awareness and ignore social norms.
Conditions Of De-Individuation Promoting Aggression
Darkness, drugs, alcohol, masks and disguises i.e. anonymity, the bigger the crowd the more anonymous we are.
Reduced Self-Awareness
Increased de-individuation in a faceless crowd is purely linked to anonymity but is the consequences of anonymity.
2 Types Of Self-Awareness
Private Self-Awareness
Public Self-Awareness
Private Self-Awareness
How we pay attention to our own feelings, which reduces in a crowd as we focus outwardly on events around us as opposed to ourselves and our beliefs. As we are less thoughtful and self-critical this leads to de-individuation.
Public Self-Awareness
How much we care about what other people think about our behaviour, which reduces in crows. We realise we’re anonymous in the crowd and our behaviour is less likely to be judged.
Dodd Research
Asked 229 undergrad psychology students ‘If they could do anything with complete assurance they wouldn’t be detected what would you do.’ 36% of responses were antisocial and 26% were criminal, suggesting a connection between anonymity and subsequent aggression.
Strengths (+)
Natural Halloween Experiment
Rape Study
Female Anonymous Study
Weaknesses (-)
Difficult To Separate
Deindividuated Behaviour Is Normative
Natural Halloween Experiment (+)
Concealed raters observed 1300 children trick or treaters under anonymity, non-anonymity, alone or in a group. When the children were given the opportunity to steal sweets and money, 57% of anonymous people stole and 21% from non-anonymous.
Rape Study (+)
North American students 35% of the university students said they’d rape if they were guaranteed they wouldn’t get caught.
Female Anonymous Study (+)
1st Condition Klu Klux Outfit, 2nd Condition Nurse Condition, 3rd Condition Normal Clothes, all giving electric shocks, and Klu-Klux clan gave highest.
Difficult To Separate (-)
What about social learning theory, like football despite having bare fans has violence, however we don’t really see this In rugby suggesting that cultural factors have a greater impact on aggression.
