This blog post examines representative phenomena of crowd psychology and the underlying psychological mechanisms.
Lately, disturbing incidents have been frequently reported in the news. There are many articles that make you frown while reading—random assaults, sexual assaults targeting young children, assaults on the elderly on buses, and so on. These incidents weigh heavily on our hearts and reveal society’s dark side. Yet, when people discuss such events afterward, they often attribute them to the individual’s inherent nature, saying things like, ‘That person is just inherently bad.’ However, we must remember that human behavior is significantly influenced not only by internal forces but also by the surrounding circumstances and environment. Whether others intend it or not, people are inevitably influenced by their surroundings.
While occasionally seen in Korea too, in the US, customs like stripping down and parading through neighborhoods on the last day of class or graduation day are often observed. Of course, they might seem crazy to bystanders, but truly, not all those people are crazy. In this way, within a crowd, people often do things they wouldn’t normally do; this phenomenon is called the mob mentality. Literally translated, it means ‘self-immersion,’ signifying the disappearance of the self that normally governs us. While our usual self maintains its identity within constraints, these constraints inevitably loosen within a crowd. An extreme example of this mob mentality can be found in Mann’s 1981 study. It examined the psychology of people watching someone threaten to commit suicide from a building. When few people are watching, they express concern for the person on the building. This is ethically and logically the expected response. However, when many people are watching—that is, within a crowd—the crowd’s attitude abruptly shifts, and some individuals emerge urging the person to jump. The mob mentality is also influenced by anonymity. The mob mentality that occurs when anonymity is guaranteed is evidenced by the malicious comments surrounding people’s deaths. Are all those who post malicious comments inherently flawed individuals? Anonymity subsumes their usual self, which would otherwise regulate them.
Furthermore, crowd psychology often causes people to disregard everyday social norms. Why do individuals within a crowd engage in behaviors they would never consider otherwise? This can be attributed to the psychological pressure and desire for conformity felt by individuals within a group. As members of a group, individuals strongly identify with that collective identity, leading them to conform to the group’s actions. While this phenomenon can have positive effects, it can also produce negative outcomes. For instance, when violent acts occur during a peaceful protest, they may be driven not by individuals but by group psychology. Therefore, we need to understand the psychological shifts that occur within crowds and recognize how group dynamics operate.
Conformity is also a behavioral pattern influenced by one’s surroundings. Conformity literally means following those beside you. Examples include obeying and following the law, or speaking and acting with civility. However, massacring civilians during war is also an example of conformity. Thus, conformity possesses both positive and negative functions. An extreme example of its negative function is mass suicide. In the United States, a simple social group founded by Jim Jones later led to an unprecedented event where 918 people collectively ingested poison and committed suicide, driven by a belief in the impending destruction of the Earth. This is attributed not simply to religious conviction, but rather to a conformity phenomenon where people acted because others were doing it. There is a famous and fascinating experiment demonstrating how readily humans conform. It involves gathering about seven students in a room and asking them to solve a problem. The problem is very simple: given three lines labeled A, B, and C, they are asked to identify the number corresponding to the longest line. The lengths of the three lines are clearly distinguishable, making the answer easy for anyone to get right. However, six of the seven subjects are in on a scheme with the experimenter and are instructed to give the same incorrect answer. The experiment tests how well the one genuine subject conforms to the other six. This question is repeated 12 times, and the results show that a staggering 70% of people conformed at least once.
You may often feel that your efficiency increases when working with others compared to working alone. For example, when timing cycling records, athletes achieved better times when competing against another person than when timing themselves alone. Similarly, when children played a game of winding fishing line, they achieved better results when working in groups rather than alone. It’s also said that jogging speeds up when someone is sitting on a nearby bench. Collectively, these results show that the mere presence of others positively influences our behavior—a phenomenon called social facilitation. Conversely, there are cases where efficiency drops when others are present compared to being alone, known as social inhibition. For example, when playing billiards, having many eyes watching nearby can make you more nervous and shaky, leading to worse performance than usual. This phenomenon is particularly common among beginners, while skilled players often perform better when others are present. Ultimately, the presence of others excites us, causing our behavior to lean toward its dominant pattern. Skilled billiards players perform better with others present, while less skilled players perform worse. The social facilitation phenomenon clearly demonstrates how the mere presence of others can unintentionally influence behavior.
Mob mentality, conformity, and social facilitation are psychological research findings showing that behavioral patterns in crowds differ from those in everyday situations. The force exerted by a person’s situation can actually break their inherent nature. Therefore, when observing someone’s actions and evaluating them, we must remember that the behavior stems not only from their inner self but also from the circumstances at the time, and avoid hasty judgments. Considering environmental factors alongside individual disposition is crucial for understanding human behavior. This will aid in making fairer and more accurate judgments.
By understanding these social influences and psychological mechanisms, we can build a better society. Furthermore, based on this understanding, we should strive to analyze the background and causes of others’ actions rather than simply condemning them, and seek more constructive solutions. Ultimately, society is formed by the collective actions of all its members, and each individual’s behavior is deeply intertwined with the nature of that society.
