Crowd Behavior

Type of psychology: Social psychology
Fields of study: Aggression; group processes; social motives
Crowd behavior is the study of how the behavior of people in groups differs from that of
individuals. People in crowds often become much more focused on their social identity
than on their own individual identity. As a result, they are much more influenced by
the norms of the group.

Key concepts

• bystander effect
• deindividuation
• diffusion of responsibility
• group norms
• social identity theory

Crowds are groups of people who are together for short periods of time. The
study of crowd behavior examines the actions that people in a crowd perform
and how these actions differ from the behavior of individuals acting
alone. Crowd behavior became a focus of scholarly thought in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries in reaction to the social turmoil in
Western Europe at that time. Italian criminologist Scipio Sighele (1868-
1913) first wrote about crowd behavior. French psychologist Gustave Le Bon
(1841-1931), the founder of crowd psychology, formalized and popularized
the concept with his book The Crowd, published in 1895. Le Bon’s ideas
reached a wide audience and are said to have influenced German dictator
Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as well as psychologists.
Because crowds have performed many senseless and destructive acts, both
historically and recently, understanding crowd behavior remains extremely
important for psychologists.

The term “crowd” refers to a wide spectrum of human gatherings, varying
in their complexity and the intention with which people join them.
Some crowds are casual; people come together by happenstance (as a group
of pedestrians standing on a sidewalk.) These tend to be simple, disorganized
groups of people who do not know one another and will probably not
see one another again. Others are conventionalized�"the people have all
chosen a common activity (for example, watching a parade or a sporting
event) and express excitement in standard ways (cheering). Some crowds
are purposive, choosing to be together for a common goal, such as a rally or
political protest. These groups are often highly cohesive and highly organized.
Because crowds differ so much in their composition, organization, and
purpose, there is also considerable variation in typical crowd behavior. Popular
and scholarly attention has tended to focus on the situations in which crowd behavior is considered problematic. In these situations, the crowd often
has an unusual problem to solve rapidly (for example, how to respond to
a hostile police force). The occurrence of riots and violence attest to the fact
that these sorts of problems are not always solved constructively by crowds.
Crowds, of course, are capable of behaving in positive ways as well.