Collective behaviour

• Collective behaviour


  The way people act when apart of a group
• Research has found that people have/can act very differently when in groups/crowds
• Crowd behaviour can also be good instead of bad, which is where most of the research is focused
• Positive examples of crowd behaviour


  • Sporting events
  • Train stations
  • Tourist attractions
• The rise of social media has also led to new forms of collective behaviour online such as crowdfunding to raise money for a good cause
• Social loafing


  When we put less effort into a task when you are with others doing the same thing
• In a crowd, the diffusion of responsibility occurs as individuals do not need to work as hard as they would need to if they worked alone, resulting in each person contributing less to the task
• Factors that reduce social loafing


  • In small groups rather than large groups
  • Completing an activity they think is important
  • In competition with another group
  • When each individual's effort is identified and evaluated
• Deindividualisation


  In a crowd, it is hard to identify individuals especially if they look and behave like others in a group, leading to people to lose their inhibitions and sense of responsibility for what they do
• Consequently, they are less able to monitor their behaviour and judge if their actions are right or wrong because they behave as a crowd rather than individuals
• When people are in crowds, they look to those around them to guide their emotion and adopt the relevant mood- they feel they shall not be punished for their actions as nobody knows who they are
• Example of deindividualisation


  • In the London riots, young people got involved because they got swept away by the crowd as they saw other people getting away with antisocial behaviour and felt anonymous so join in as well
• Deindividualisation can also occur when people behave like the group they are in- when people join a group, they are expected to act like others in that group
• Wearing clothes that show group membership, increases the likelihood that deindividualisation will occur
• Culture


  • Social norms within a culture affect group behavior
  • Social loafing does not seem to occur in all countries
  • In some collectivist cultures like china, people are prepared to work just as hard for the good of the group even when they do not need to
  • It is difficult to assume that collective behaviour will be the same in all cultures
• Dispositional factors affecting collective behavior

  • Personality
  • Morality
• Locus of control


  • Eternal (external) - people who believe they cannot control the things that happen to them
  • Internal - people who believe they can control the things that happen to them
• Internals


  More likely to take greater responsibility for their behaviour
• Externals


  Decide how to behave depending on their own sense of good and bad
• Morality


  An individual's sense of right and wrong
• If they feel what they are doing is morally right, for example challenging unfair rules


  They may feel more justified in participating in anti-social behaviour
• If anti-social behaviour presents a risk to them


  They are less inclined to get involved