DE-INDIVIDUATION

• What is deindividuation?

  A psychological state where the person loses their personal sense of identity and takes on the identity of the social group. Proposed by LeBon
• why might deindividuation happen?

  large crowd, uniform, anonymity, drugs or alcohol, darkness
• what happens with aggression?

  in a deindividuated state people are more likely to ignore social norms and laws, becoming aggressive
• how does deindividuation happen?

  we lose restraint and behave in emotional, impulsive and irrational ways. we lose our sense of self identity and personal responsibility
• how does anonymity reduce private self awareness?

  our attention is focused on external things around us, we think less about our own beliefs and feelings, less self critical
• how does anonymity reduce public self awareness?

  our actions are less likely to be judged by others so we become less accountable and responsible for aggressive actions
• Key Study : DODD

  229 psychology students asked anonymously what they would do if they could get away with anything and have zero responsibility.

  independent raters who were unaware of hypothesis categorised responses
• Dodd results

  36% involved anti social behaviour, 26% were criminal (most common was rob a bank) 9% were pro social behaviours
• Evaluation point 1

  STRENGTH supporting research

  Douglas and McGarty looked at aggressive online behaviour in chat rooms and messages. Found strong correlation between anonymity and ‘flaming’ (hostile messages) most aggressive were from people who hid their identities
• Evaluation point 2

  WEAKNESS contradictory evidence

  Gergen et al placed participants in dark room for one hour, told they could do whatever they wanted and they would never see each other again. They stopped talking and started kissing and touching each other. Repeated and were told they would see each other at the end, kissing declined dramatically
• evaluation point 3

  WEAKNESS, deindividuation does not always lead to aggression

  Johnson and Dowling has 3 groups, one dressed in masks with hoods, nurses and normal clothes. Asked to shock learner, the masked gave more intense shocks and nursed gave fewer at lower levels, more compassionate. Prosocial role with nurses uniform
• Evaluation 4

  real life application

  can explain aggressive behaviour in online gaming services, have features promoting deindividuation, confirms relevance of the explanation