Transcript Collectives - Coweta County Schools

• Collective behavior
–
–
–
–
–
–
activities involving large number of people
often spontaneous
typically in violation of established social norms
based on limited social interaction
no clear social boundaries
no common identity
Crowds
Temporary Gathering of People Who Share Common Focus
of Attention Members Influence One Another
HERBERT BLUMMER Identified 4 types, 5TH added later
• CASUAL CROWD: ie: people on beach
loose collection of people
• CONVENTIONAL CROWD:ie: classroom
meets for specific purpose
• EXPRESSIVE CROWD: ie: concert/sports event
emotional appeal event
• ACTING CROWD:ie: fleeing a fire
collectivity fueled by intense, single-minded purpose
• PROTEST CROWD: ie: sit-in, march, strike, boycott
When Acting Crowds Turn Violent
• Mob
– Emotional crowd that pursues
violent or destructive goal
• Lynch mob
• Riots
– Social eruption that is highly emotional,
violent & undirected
 after Katrina
Theories of Crowd Behavior
• Contagion
theory
• Convergence
theory
• Emergent-norm
theory
• Contagion Theory
Gustave Le Bon’s
– Crowds exert hypnotic influence over
their members, people surrender to
“collective mind”
– members rid themselves of inhibitions
and act out
– crowd >life of its own
• Critical evaluation
– Not necessarily irrational
– Specific individuals take
leadership
Convergence theory
– Motivations are brought to crowd by individual
members, not vice versa
– Crowds>convergence of like-minded people
– Crowd doesn’t generate action, rather
members stimulate action of crowd
• ie: groups concerned about crime
Critical evaluation
– People do things in
crowd they would not do alone
Risky Shift Phenomenon
– Crowds can intensify sentiment simply by
creating critical mass of like-minded people
• Emergent-norm theory
Turner & Killian’s
– People have mixed interests
– In less stable crowds (expressive, acting, and protest),
norms may be vague or changing
– one does something and others jump on “bandwagon”
– people make their own rules as they go along
• Critical evaluation
– Symbolic-interaction approach that points
out that people take on different roles
Mass Behavior
• Collective behavior among people
dispersed over wide geographical area
• Types include
– Rumor and gossip
– Public opinion
– Propaganda
– Panic
– Mass hysteria
– Fads and fashions
Rumor and Gossip
• Rumor – unsubstantiated information people
spread informally, often by word of mouth
– Thrives in climate of ambiguity
– Unstable
– Difficult to stop
• Gossip – personal affairs of others
–
–
–
–
Concerns small circle of people
Rumors spread widely, gossip more localized
Used to praise or scorn someone
Used to raise one’s standing or keep in their place
Public Opinion & Propaganda
• Public opinion – widespread attitudes about
controversial issues
– Any given issue from 2–10% of Americans report they hold
no opinion
• Is this due to ignorance or indifference?
– Not everyone’s opinion carries same weight
• Experts in field
• Propaganda–information presented
with intention of shaping public opinion
– Thin line between info & propaganda
– Not all propaganda is false
Panic & Mass Hysteria
• Panic
– Localized collective behavior
by which people react to
perceived threat or other
stimulus with irrational,
frantic, and often selfdestructive behavior
• Mass hysteria
– Dispersed collective behavior
by which people respond to
real or imagined event often
with irrational and even
frantic fear
Fashions
and Fads
• Fashions
– Social pattern favored at time by large # of people
• Fashion characterizes all forms of art
• Traditional style gives way to changing fashion
• Can trickle down through less expensive copies
• Conspicuous Consumption Veblen’s Theorypeople buy expensive products to show-off wealth
• Fads
– Unconventional social pattern people embrace
but enthusiastically
– Sometimes called crazes
brief