Understanding the behaviour of crowds

Question 1

Prosocial Behavious

Answer 1

1. There are many different types of crowds
2. Some are peaceful and can usually be found at festivals, concerts, and sporting events - even protests can be peaceful
3. These crowds can show prosocial behaviour which is when behaviour is seen as helpful, kind, co-operative and peaceful

Question 2

Antisocial behavious

Answer 2

1. There are many different types of crowds
2. Some can start off as or develop into mobs -from which rioting can arise
3. In this instance the crowd can be described as showing antisocial behaviour
4. Antisocial behaviour is behaviour that is unhelpful, destructive, and aggressive.

Question 3

Deindividuation and conformity (crowds)

Answer 3

1. Crowd behaviour, whether peaceful or aggressive, can be understood in terms of deindividuation, as members lose their personal identity among others
2. Additionally, under these conditions, each member of a crowd is more likely to conform to the behaviour of the majority because they are no longer acting as an individual
3. Crowds magnify levels of conformity because of this deindividuation of its members
4. This helps to explain why ordinary people, when in large crowds, sometimes cause criminal damage and get involved in fighting that they would not normally do if alone
5. However if a crowd maintains peace, this can encourage every member to act in a prosocial manner
6. Other researchers argue that rather than a loss of personal identity where we feel anonymous within a crowd, we in fact tend to form a new identity within a crowd. The new identity is bound up in the norms of the group
7. e.g. if you were in an animal rights protest, your views may become as strong as everybody else’s so you conform to the group norms rather than stay anonymous.

Question 4

Obedience (crowds)

Answer 4

1. Within a crowd, an authority figure can exert an influence over others
2. This is particularly true if the authority figure is close to the crowd members and has greater power
3. In Milgram’s obedience study, he found that proximity, legitimacy, and power of the authority figure showed higher levels of obedience.
4. It may be true that this could also happen within a crowd
5. The intentions of the authority figure may be prosocial or antisocial so the crowd could hence be directed to be peaceful or aggressive.