Crowd psychology

The psychology of a crowd is a collective behaviour realised by the individuals within it.

A category of social psychology known as "crowd psychology" or "mob psychology" examines how the psychology of a group of people differs from the psychology of any one person within the group. The study of crowd psychology looks into the actions and thought processes of both the individual members of the crowd and of the crowd as a collective social entity. The behavior of a crowd is much influenced by deindividuation (seen as a person's loss of responsibility[1]) and by the person's impression of the universality of behavior, both of which conditions increase in magnitude with size of the crowd.[2][3] Notable theorists in crowd psychology include Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).[4] Many of these theories are today tested or used to simulate crowd behaviors in normal or emergency situations. One of the main focuses in these simulation works aims to prevent crowd crushes and stampedes.[5][6]

  1. ^ Schwirblat, Tatiana; Freberg, Karen; Freberg, Laura (27 June 2022). "Cancel Culture: A Career Vulture amongst Influencers on Social Media". In Lipschultz, Jeremy Harris; Freberg, Karen; Luttrell, Regina (eds.). The Emerald Handbook of Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Media. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. ISBN 9781800715998. Retrieved 21 September 2024. Deindividuation, or the loss of personal identity within a crowd, can lead normal, law-abiding people to do terrible things. In 1885, Gustave Le Bon argued that people lost their sense of personal responsibility when in a crowd, which in turn led to impulsive and hedonistic behavior. [...] While anonymity plays a role in deindividuation, other factors are also at work. Diffusion of responsibility can make an important contribution.
  2. ^ Greenberg, M.S. (2010). Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology.
  3. ^ Toch, Hans (1988). "Psychology of Crowds Revisited". Contemporary Psychology. 33 (11): 954. doi:10.1037/026204.
  4. ^ Manstead, ASK; Hewstone, Miles (1996). Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. pp. 152–156. ISBN 978-0-631-20289-9.
  5. ^ Haghani, Milad; Lovreglio, Ruggiero (9 December 2022). "Data-based tools can prevent crowd crushes". Science. 378 (6624): 1060–1061. Bibcode:2022Sci...378.1060H. doi:10.1126/science.adf5949. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 36480619.
  6. ^ Haghani, Milad; Coughlan, Matt; Crabb, Ben; Dierickx, Anton; Feliciani, Claudio; van Gelder, Roderick; Geoerg, Paul; Hocaoglu, Nazli; Laws, Steve; Lovreglio, Ruggiero; Miles, Zoe; Nicolas, Alexandre; O'Toole, William J.; Schaap, Syan; Semmens, Travis (1 December 2023). "A roadmap for the future of crowd safety research and practice: Introducing the Swiss Cheese Model of Crowd Safety and the imperative of a Vision Zero target". Safety Science. 168: 106292. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2023.106292. ISSN 0925-7535.