De-individuation - Social/psychological explanations

Question 1

What is De-individuation ?

Answer 1

Being in a crowd can lead to a reduction in
-Self awareness
-Personal individuality

(Festinger)

Question 2

What does the loss of individuality lead to ?

Answer 2

Loss of personal control
Normally non-aggressive people going along with the aggressive behaviours in the group.

Question 3

What is the reason for this behaviour ?

Anonymity

Answer 3

It can be hard to be identified in a crowd.

People may feel anonymous and so have reduced feelings of personal responsibility.

This lowers inhibitions/feelings of guilt about committing aggressive acts.

Question 4

What can anonymity be increased by ?

Answer 4

Masks - Uniforms - Darkness

(Zimbardo’s - Female lab coats)

Question 5

What is a reduction in public-self awareness?

Answer 5

Losing sense of personal responsibility of people in a deindividuated state.

It is reduced because they are less worried about what people think of them.

Question 6

1. Why is there a reduction in public self-awareness?
2. What does it do ?

Answer 6

1. We are focused on crowds actions that we don’t focus on our own values/personal thoughts/behaviour.
2. This makes us less able to stop our own aggressive acts.

Question 7

Evaluation
Support for de-individuation

Zimbardo - Female - wearing lab coats

Answer 7

Asked female participants
In groups of 4

Asked to shock a learner (confederate)
They could see them through a one way glass.

Question 8

What were the 2 conditions for participant’s ?

Answer 8

G1 - De-individuation condition
Asked to put on large lab coats/hoods
Could not be identified by other participants

G2- Identifiability condition
Greeted by name/given large name tags

Question 9

What was found ?

What do the findings suggest ?

Answer 9

G1 - De-individuated group - Shocked learner for twice as long

Suggesting - being anonymous can increase aggression.

Question 10

Evaluation

Gergen - Dark/light room study into anonymity

Answer 10

Aim:
To investigate how anonymity affects social interaction.

Procedure:
Participants were placed in a completely dark room with strangers and told they could do anything.
A control group was in a lit room under the same conditions.

Findings:
Dark room: More intimate and uninhibited behaviour (e.g. touching, hugging).

Lit room: More restrained, polite behaviour.

Conclusion:
Anonymity and reduced accountability lead to disinhibited social behaviour.

Link to Aggression:
Supports deindividuation theory – in some settings, anonymity can reduce inhibition, which may lead to antisocial behaviours like aggression, especially if the social context encourages it.

Shows that context matters – dark room led to intimacy here, but could lead to aggression in different environments (e.g. crowds, riots).

Question 11

Evaluation

Positive - Face validity

Answer 11

The idea of de-individuation leading to higher levels of aggression has face validity.

Normal people without aggressive history get caught up in violent riots/warfare

Tribal societies use war paints/masks

Modern armies - Uniforms/masks

All of these remove individuality