Social-psychological explanation: DE-INDIVIDUATION

Question 1

What does the de-individuation theory suggests about crowd behaviour?

Answer 1

• Suggests that in a crowd we lose restraint and our sense of self-identity, so we are more likely to behave in ways we normally wouldn’t.
• Responsibility becomes shared throughout the crowd, so we experience less personal guilt.

Question 2

What does individuated mean?

Answer 2

Behaviour is generally rational and normative.

Question 3

What does de-individuated mean?

Answer 3

Behaviours are emotional, impulsive and irrational - they are anti-normative and disinhibited.

Question 4

What happens when we’re in a de-individuated state?

Answer 4

• When we are in a de-individuated state we lose self-awareness, we stop monitoring and regulating our own behaviour and we ignore social norms.

Question 5

What are the conditions of de-individuation which promote aggressive behaviour?

Answer 5

darkness
drugs
alcohol
uniform
masks
ANONYMITY

Question 6

What are the 2 roles of self-awareness?

Answer 6

Private self-awareness:
- how we pay attention to our own feelings an behaviours
- decreases when we become part of a crowd
- attention becomes focused to external factors so we pay less attention to our own thoughts and beliefs
Public self-awareness:
- how much we care about what other people think of our behaviour
- we are one individual amongst many so we are anonymous and so our behaviour is less likely to be judged

Question 7

Who conducted research into de-individuation?

Answer 7

Dodd

Question 8

What was the procedure of Dodd’s study?

Answer 8

• Asked 229 undergraduate psychology students in 13 classes a question.
• ‘If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?’
• The students were made aware that their answers would be anonymous.

Question 9

What was the findings of Dodd’s study?

Answer 9

• Dodd found that 36% of responses involved some form of anti-social behaviour.
• 26% included actual crime acts.
• Only 9% were prosocial behaviours.
• Study demonstrates link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour.

Question 10

State 2 positives of de-individuation as an explanation.

Answer 10

Research support:
- Douglas and McGarty looked at aggressive online behaviour in chatrooms and the uses of instant messaging
- strong correlation between anonymity and sending/posting threatening messages
- demonstrates existence of link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour
Real-life application:
- riots

Question 11

State 2 negatives of de-individuation as an explanation.

Answer 11

Lack of support:
- Gergen 'deviance in the dark study'
De-individuation and prosocial behaviour:
- Johnson and Downing
- KKK, nurse and own clothes study