social explanations: de-individuation

• the 4 things in de-individuation applied to aggression are:

  • it explains crowd behaviour and aggression
  • it refers to reduced sense of personal responsibility
  • anonymity is a major condition
  • self awareness is reduced
• researchers argued that when we join a crowd we lose restraint, self identity and responsibility (this is de-individuation). Therefore, er experience less personal guilt at being aggressive and so we act more aggressive
• Zimbardo argued our behaviour us usually individuated but when de-individuated we lose self awareness, stop monitoring our behaviour and ignore social norms. De-individuated behaviour is irrational, impulsive, disinhibited and anti normative
• several conditions of de-individuation promote aggression like anonymity. We have less fear of retribution because we are unidentifiable in a crowd. The bigger the crowd, the greater the anonymity. Anonymity provides fewer opportunities for others to judge us negatively
• researchers argue that anonymity reduces 2 types of self awareness:

  • private self awareness- attention to our own feelings is reduced because it is focused outwards on event around us
  • public self awareness- reduced because we realise we are anonymous and our behaviour is less likely to be judged by others
• Dodd’s study on student de-individuation procedure: asked 29 psychology students ‘if you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be caught, what would you do?‘ Students knew their answers were anonymous. 3 independent raters who didn’t know the hypothesis decided which categories of prosocial or antisocial behaviour the responses belonged to
• Dodd’s study on student de-individuation findings and conclusions: 36% of responses involved a form of antisocial behaviour and 26% actual criminal acts. Only 9% of responses were prosocial behaviours. This study demonstrates a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour
• One strength is research support for de-individuation. Researchers found that the most aggressive messages posted on social media were from people who hid their real identities. This is a common behaviour of online trolls and has been implicated in high profile cases of self harm and even suicide. This supports a link between aggressive behaviour and anonymity, a key element of de-individuation
• One limitation is that de-individuation is normative rather than anti-normative. De-individuation theory argues we behave against social norms when we are less aware of our private identity. But Spear’s and Lea’s SIDE model disagrees. Instead, they argue that de-individuation leads to conformity to group norms. Anonymity shifts individuals attention from private identity to social identity as a group member. This suggests that people who are in a de-individuated state remain sensitive to norms rather than ignoring them