Crowds: Anonymity for Web Transactions Michael Reiter and Avi Rubin 1998.
Group Behaviour Collective/Mass/Crowd. Why do groups form? single variables such as: anonymity of...
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Transcript of Group Behaviour Collective/Mass/Crowd. Why do groups form? single variables such as: anonymity of...
Group Behaviour
Collective/Mass/Crowd
Why do groups form?
single variables such as: anonymity of crowds economic deprivation alienation strong leadership
**We can make connections between all of these points and the articles that we read last class (Social Groups).
Review
Social Groups Structure – a leader Roles – behaviour for an individual in the group Norms – the rules of the group Sanctions – encourage/discourage certain
behaviours
Anomie
History
Gustave Le Bon published, The Crowd, in 1895. Emile Durkheim’s published, The Division of Labor
in Society, in 1893 and Suicide, in 1897. Neil J. Smelser’s, published his Theory of
Collective Behavior, in 1963.
Types of Groups
Primary – personal, long lastingSecondary – impersonal, short-term
Localized – face-to-facedispersed
Collective Behaviour
Collective Behaviour
a relatively spontaneous and temporary behaviour that involves a large number of people engaging in activities that violate conventional norms. considered deviant
numbers of people engaged in behaviour that violates social expectations of a given situation, behaviour they might otherwise avoid.
*“irrational reversions to animal emotion”
Le Bon
Collective behavior is non-institutionalized, unconventional group activity such as panics, crazes, mass delusions, incited crowds, riots, and reform or revolutionary movements.
He argued that individuals can lose their self-identity in crowds and can commit acts they would not do alone, including physical aggression. Anonymity can lead to violence
However, crowds are progressive in that they challenge existing social arrangements and often lead to social change.
* Montreal RiotRodney King RiotsBin Laden death – singing, dancing, etc.
Ex: When people cheer at a basketball game, this (cheering) is NOT considered collective behavior because in the situation (the game), cheering is expected--it is considered normal behavior; however, if a large group from the audience decide to go down and assault the referees, this becomes collective behavior because such behavior is NOT part of the normative expectations of the game situation.
For any behavior to be defined sociologically as collective behavior, it has to be unconventional, unexpected, unusual and relatively unstructured and spontaneous Collective behavior lacks both organizational
structuring and institutionalized norms. Therefore, not actually a group in its strictest sense!
Four forms of Collective Behaviour1. The Crowd
2. The Public
3. The Mass
4. The Social Movement
The Crowd
A crowd, like the riders on a bus, may have little or nothing to do with each other, just at the same place at the same time.
However, crowds can be linked to each other by a common emotion. If a crowd can relate to each other, it can turn
into a group.
The Public
Public - discusses a single issue Therefore,a public is not equivalent to all of the
members of a society. To Blumer, there are as many publics as there
are issues. A public comes into being when discussion of
an issue begins, and ceases to be when it reaches a decision on it.
The Mass
differs from both the crowd and the public in that it is defined not by a form of interaction but by the efforts of those who use the mass media to address an audience.
Mass media + = social impact + mass media attempt to persuade
The Social Movement
active movements - such as the French Revolution tries to change society
expressive movements - such as Alcoholics Anonymous. tries to change its own members
Mass Behaviour
Def.
People who are not in the same geographical place can engage in collective behaviour. Relies on personal communication between
individuals. As communication over long distances
improves, so does our ability to engage in mass behaviour.
Panic and Mass Hysteria
Panic – causes people to react to a threat in an emotional, irrational and sometimes self-destructive way.
Mass Hysteria – people respond to an event with irrational and frantic behvaiour. Differs from panic in that people caught up in mass hysteria have little or no contact with each other.
Fashion and Fads
Fashion – social pattern adopted by a large number of people, usually for a fairly short period of time. I. E. Clothing, hairstyles and music and in articles such as furniture, cars and even computers.
Fads – social pattern that people follow briefly, but enthusiastically. Fashion may become part of mainstream, fads
often outside the cultural norm.