Herd mentality (mob mentality)

Herd mentality, also known as crowd mentality or mob mentality, is a psychological concept related to the collective behavior of people in groups. People in a group as small as a few friends or as large as a crowd at an event will often behave in ways that differ from their personal morality or in ways that would be outside of their comfort zone if they were alone. Research has also shown that people can be influenced by the opinions of others, often wanting to own or do something because others have it or are doing it. The effects of this can range from relatively harmless to very harmful and/or dangerous, and have applications in many situation, including crowd control at public events, financial markets, marketing, and childrearing. Research has shown that people are often unaware that they are being affected by herd mentality, but knowing that it exists can help a person avoid its more negative effects.

Background

In the late nineteenth century, experts in fields as diverse as economics, sociology, and psychology noticed that people could be strongly influenced to say and do things in a group that they would not do as individuals. Gustave Le Bon was a French polymath, or person who has a wide range of interests and expertise. In 1895, he wrote The Psychology of Crowds, which said the people in a crowd will often adopt a similar mindset that draws on the feelings and fears of a few and expands to become like a collective hypnosis of the entire group.

In 1903, French sociologist and criminologist Gabriel Tarde proposed a name for this collective hypnosis. He called it social somnambulism, or social sleepwalking. Tarde believed that being in crowds led people to develop a group mind that would supersede the usual thoughts and behaviors of the individual.

The first person to apply the word herd to the behavior of humans in a crowd was Wilfred Trotter, an English neurosurgeon. Trotter's work The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War was originally released in two parts in 1908 and 1909. It deals with the ability of the mindset of a crowd to overwhelm the will and morality of the individual.

Over the next century, many others would investigate the herd mentality phenomenon. In 1922, famed Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud spoke of a herd instinct that led people to follow a leader without pausing to question the behavior. In 1935, British economist John Maynard Keynes noted that when people have to make a decision about which they do not possess enough information, their tendency is to do what most other people are doing; for example, if a person holds stock but knows little about the market and sees others start to sell their stock, that person is likely to sell simply because others are.

In 1992, economists Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch proposed that people could be led to take an action by the behavior of others even when they personally had information contraindicating that action. They theorized that people assume if others are taking a different action, those people have more or better information.

Overview

The herd principle can be seen at work in a variety of situations: school children ganging up on one of their own; people standing in line to buy the newest cell phone; fans screaming, singing, and wearing face paint and costumes at a sporting event; and mobs smashing cars and windows at a protest. The concept of a herd mentality comes from the idea of animal herds, which generally follow a leader without consciously thinking about what they are doing or considering any other options. While many animals may lack the ability to make these reasoned decisions, researchers have determined that people have become susceptible to making similarly unthinking decisions. The results can range from relatively innocuous—such as fans at the sporting event or the people all buying the same new phone—to dangerous, in the case of bullying or mob violence at a protest.

Researchers have several explanations for this phenomenon. A study released in 2014 by the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom stated that people have evolved to rely on the opinions and judgments of others, even over their own viewpoints. As a result, the study said, people rely so heavily on the opinions of others that they are less able to respond to changes.

This becomes a factor in many situations, including the need to have the newest gadget or see the latest movie or show. The desire to be part of the crowd and not be left out is strong. This plays a key role in advertising, some researchers have found.

Others have noted that when people are in a group, they tend to surrender their individuality and their individually held beliefs and values to those of the group. This deindividuation allows the person to succumb to the excitement or emotion of the overall group and depresses the individual's normal inhibitions and restraint. This is not always bad; the normally reserved person who is quiet at work but really enjoys the dance floor at a party is an example of this. A negative example, however, is a normally reserved person who begins screaming and cursing at a speaker while marching in a protest.

Psychologists believe that being in a crowd lifts the feeling of personal responsibility under which most people act, replacing it with a sense that the crowd is responsible for what is going on. This removes the normal inhibitions and makes it seem okay to go along with what the crowd is doing, even if the person would never even consider those acts if he or she were alone. The sense that everyone else was doing it, and the peer pressure to do what others are doing, alleviate the guilt and shame that would normally accompany negative actions.

Researchers say being aware of this phenomenon is one of the ways to avoid falling into a herd mentality. Others include taking time to become educated on matters and form individual opinions, and being aware of how stress and crowd situations affect personal judgment.

Bibliography

Bikhchandani, Sushil, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch. "Learning from the Behavior of Others: Conformity, Fads, and Informational Cascades." Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998, sites.uci.edu/dhirshle/files/2011/02/Learning-from-the-Behavior-of-Others-Conformity-Fads-and-Informational-Cascades.pdf. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

"Examining the Mob Mentality." South Source, South University, Jan. 2011, source.southuniversity.edu/examining-the-mob-mentality-31395.aspx. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

"Herd Mentality: Are We Programmed to Make Bad Decisions?" University of Exeter, 17 Dec. 2014, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141216212049.htm. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Morin, Amy. "Study Shows the Power of Social Influence: 5 Ways to Avoid the Herd Mentality." Forbes, 25 July 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2014/07/25/study-shows-the-power-of-social-influence-5-ways-to-avoid-the-herd-mentality/#484e58566e4e. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Phillips, Carl. "Separate Yourself from Herd Mentality." Huffington Post, 28 Apr. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-phillips/separate-yourself-from-he‗b‗9794942.html. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Raafat, Ramsey M., Nick Chater, and Chris Frith. "Herding in Humans." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Oct. 2009, www.researchgate.net/publication/26807046‗Herding‗in‗Humans. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Swanson, Gillian. "Collectivity, Human Fulfilment and the 'Force of Life.'" History of the Human Sciences, 12 Dec. 2013, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0952695113514594?journalCode=hhsa. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.

Zaretsky, Robert. "Donald Trump and the Myth of Mobocracy." The Atlantic, 27 July 2016, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/07/trump-le-bon-mob/493118/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.