Social Psychological Explanations: De-individuation Flashcards
What did Zimbardo argue
Behaviour is usually constrained by social norms - aggressive behaviour is usually discouraged
What did Zimbardo suggest about when we look at a crowd
Will lose restraint and may behave in emotional, impulsive and irrational ways
What did Zimbardo suggest we become
De-individuales and lose individual self-identity and responsibility for our own behaviour
What is shared throughout the crowd
Responsibility - weird not social norms and experience last personal guilt at harmful aggression directed at others
What is a major condition of de-indiciduation that promotes aggression
Anonymity (e.g. uniforms)
Why is anonymity such a major condition
We have less fear of retribution because we are unidentifiable in a crowd - the bigger the grown the larger the anonymity
What does anonymity provide
Fewer opportunities for others to judge us negatively
What was argues about anonymity
Reduces private self awareness because our attention is focused outwardly to the events around us - meaning we think less about our own beliefs
What is anonymity said to reduce
Reduces public self awareness - we realise we are anonymous and our behaviour is less likely to be judged by others - no longer care how others see us
What did Dodd study?
Student de-individuation
What was Dodd’s procedure
Asked psychology students “if you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible what would you do?” - students knew that answers were anonymous
Who decided the groups
Three independent raters who did not know the hypothesis decided which categories of prosocial or antisocial behaviour the responses belonged to
What were Dodd’s findings
36% of respondents involved a form of antisocial behaviour
26% involved actual crime
9% were prosocail behaviour
What does this study demonstrate
In terms of how people imagine they would behave, it demonstrates a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour
Name a strength for de-individuation
Real life applications - the theory can I help us to understand aggressive behaviour in online gaming services - they have features promoting de-individuation, reduction of personality and arousing immersive environment
