A01

• De-individuation attempt to explain behaviour of individuals in crowds. When we join a crowd, we lose restraints that we normally would have. Responsibility becomes shared throughout the crowd which means we feel less personal guilt at directing aggression at others.
• Zimbardo explained how people can shift from an individuated state (behaviour that conforms to social norms) to a de-individuated state (lose self-awareness and ignore social norms) under conditions such as darkness, drugs, alcohol. A key factor is anonymity which you gain once you join a crowd. Being anonymous provides fewer opportunities for others to judge you negatively.

  The consequences of anonymity are crucial as it affects our private self-awareness (joining a crowd makes us pay less attention to our own beliefs) and our public self-awareness (we no longer care what others think of us).
• Dodd (1985) asked participants what they would do if they would not be held responsible or be detected. Results showed 36% involving antisocial behaviour, 26% were criminal acts and only 9% were prosocial. This demonstrated the link between anonymity and aggressive behaviour.