Collective Behavior

• collective behavior is an activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned, often controversial, and sometimes dangerous
• types of collective behavior

  1. disasters
  2. mobs and riots
  3. panic and mass hysteria
  4. rumor and gossip
  5. fashion and fads
• complexity of studying collective behavior

  1. diverse - involves a wide range of human action
  2. variable - e.g., rumor can spread quickly and reach global, but others can die quickly
  3. much is transitory - some social institutions like family are continuing parts of society; disasters, rumors, and fads come and go quickly
• collectivity is a large number of people whose minimal interaction occurs in the absence of well-defined and conventional norms
• localized collectivity refers to people physically close to one another, as in the case of crowds and riots
• dispersed collectivity or mass behaviors involves people who influence one another despite being spread over a large area (e.g. rumors, public opinion, and fashion)
• people in collectivities have little or no social interaction.

  • ppl in mobs or localized activities interact very little
  • most ppl taking part in dispersed collectivities, such as fad, do NOT interact at all.
• collectivities have no clear social boundaries

  • ppl engaged in collective behavior usually do not share sense of identity
  • ppl may share concerns over many issues, but usually it is difficult to know exactly who falls within the specific movement
• ex. of dispersed collectivity or mass behaviors

  rumor, public opinion, fashion
• collectivities generate weak and unconventional norms

  • other collectivities e.g., excited fans after a game, behave according to no clear guidelines (no conventions and norms) - Weller & Quarantelli, 1973; Turner & Killian, 1987
• localized collectivities: crowds
• collectivity vs social group

  1. collectivity has litte or no social interaction
  2. collectivity has no clear social boundaries
  3. collectivity generate weak & unconventional norms
• crowd is a temporary gathering of people who share a common focus of attention and who influence one another
• crowds are fairly new development.

  • most of our ancestors never saw a large crowd.
  • in medieval Europe, abt. the only time large no. of ppl gathered in one place was when armies faced off on the battlefield (Laslet, 1984)
• 2 types of collectivity

  1. localized collectivity
  2. dispersed collectivity or mass behavior
• types of crowds (herbert blumer, 1969)

  1. casual crowd
  2. conventional crowd
  3. expressive crowd
  4. acting crowd
  5. protest crowd
• casual crowd

  • loose collection of ppl who interact little, if at all.
  • ex: ppl lying on beach
• conventional crowd

  • results from deliberate planning and follows clear set of norms
  • ex: country auction, college lecture, presidential inauguration
• expressive crowd

  • forms around an event w/emotional appeal such as excitement
  • e.g. religious revival, concert, or new year's eve celebration
• acting crowd

  • collectively motivated by intense, single-minded purpose
  • set in motion by powerful emotions w/can sometimes trigger mob violence
• protest crowd

  • may stage marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and strike for political purposes (McPhail & Wohlstein, 1983)
  • in some cases, have low-level energy characteristics of conventional crowd
  • at other times, esp. when gov't forces go offensive, ppl become emotional enough to form an acting crowd
• mob is a highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent or destructive goal
• lynching is the most notorious example of mob behavior in the United States.
• • At a time before, there were formal police and courts at law, William Lynch took it upon himself to enforce law and order in his community
• • Lynch mobs terrorized newly freed African American. Any person of color who challenged white superiority risked being hanged or burned alived by hate-filled whites.
• Riot is a social interaction that is highly emotional, violent, and undirected
• Riot usually has no clear goal, except perhaps to express dissatisfaction.

  • The cause of most riots is some long-standing anger or grievance
  • violent action is ignited by some minor incident that causes people to start destroying property and harming other people (Smelser, 1962; M. Rosenfeld, 1997)
• A riot tends to go on until the rioters run out of steam or police and community leaders gradually bring them under control
• the power of the crowd to challenge the status quo and sometimes to force social change is the reason crowds are controversial.

  • throughout history, defenders of status quo have feared "the mob" as threat
  • by contrast, those seeking change have supported collective action
• theories on crowd behavior

  1. contagion theory
  2. convergence theory
  3. emergent-norm theory
• according to Gustave Le Bon's contagion theory (1960, orig. 1895), crowds have a hypnotic influence on their members.
• Contagion theory

  • shielded by anonymity found in large numbers, people forget abt. personal responsibility and give in to the contagious emotions of the crowd
• contagion theory

  • crowd thus assumes a life of its own, stirring up emotions and driving people toward irrational, even violent action
• convergence theory

  • holds that crowd behavior comes not from the crowd itself but from the particular people who join in
• from the convergence theory point of view, a crowd is a convergence of like-minded individuals.

  • claims that people who wish to act in a certain way come together to form a crowd.
• Emergent norm theory

  • Ralph Turner & Lewis Killian (1987) argued that social behavior is never entirely predictable, but if similar interests draw people into crowd, distinctive patterns of behavior may emerge
• emergent norm theory

  • behavior of people in crowds may change over time as people draw on their traditions or make new rules as they go along
• emergent norm theory

  • acdg. to Turner & Killian, crowds begin as collectivities containing ppl w/ mixed interests and motives
• Dispersed collectivities: mass behavior
• mass behavior refers to collective behavior among ppl spread over a wide geographic area.