Collective Behavior

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Collective Behavior

Activity involving a large number of people, often spontaneous, and sometimes controversial. Collective behavior ranges from crowds, mobs and riots, rumor and gossip, public opinion, panic and mass hysteria and fashion and fads to social movements aimed at changing the course of peoples lives around the world. 5/6/12

Studying Collective Behavior

Despite its importance, collective behavior is difficult to study for three main reasons; Collective behavior is wide ranging. Collective behavior is hard to explain.

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Much collective behavior is transitory. 5/6/12

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All collective behavior involves the action of some collectivity, a large number of people whose minimal interaction occurs in the absence of well-defined and conventional norms.

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Localized Collectivity Refers to people in physical proximity to one another e.g., crowds and riots. Dispersed Collectivity Involves people who influence one another even though they are separated by great distances e.g., fashion and public opinion.
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Collective behavior and social groups

It is important to distinguish collective behavior from social groups. Collectivities are based on limited social interaction. Collectivities have no clear social boundaries. Collectivities generate weak and unconventional norms.

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Localized Collectivities

Crowd A temporary gathering of people who share a common focus of attention and who influence one another. Herbert Blumer identified four categories of crowd.

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Usual Crowd Loose collection of people who interact little, if at all. People at the beach or at the scene of an automobile accident have only a passing awareness of one another.

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Conventional Crowd Results from deliberate planning, as illustrated by a college lecture, celebritys funeral. Interactions conforms to norms appropriate to the situation.

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Expressive Crowd Forms around an event with emotional appeal, such as a religious revival, a world wrestling federation match, or new years eve celebrations. Excitement is the main reason people join expressive crowds.
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Acting Crowd Collectivity motivated by an intense, single minded purpose, such as an audience rushing the doors of a concert hall or fleeting from a burning theater. Acting crowds are ignited by very powerful emotions, which can feverish into intensity and sometimes 5/6/12 erupt into mob violence.

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Protest Crowds May stage strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, and marches for political purposes. Examples of protest crowds are the antiwar demonstrations that took place on many campuses and in many large cities in the months prior to the war in Iraq.
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In such crowds, most people display the low level energy characteristic of a conventional crowd, while some are emotional enough to be in an acting crowd.

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Sometimes, a protest begins peacefully, but people may become aggressive when forced with resistance by police or counter demonstrators.

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Mobs and Riots

When an acting crowd turns violent, we may witness the birth of a mob, a highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent or destructive goal. Despite of their intense emotion, mobs tend to dissipate quickly.

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How long a mob persists often depends on its precise goals and whether its leadership tries to inflame or stabilize the crowd.

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Riots A frenzied crowd without any particular purpose is a riot, a social eruption that is highly emotional, violent and undirected. Unlike the action of mob, a riot has no clear goal, except perhaps to express dissatisfaction.
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Underlying most riots is long lasting anger that is ignited by some minor incident so that participants become violent, destroying property or harming other persons. A riot tends to disperse only as the participants run out of steam or police and community leaders gradually bring them under control.
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Religious Riots Ethnic Riots Racial Riots Nationality Riots

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Dispersed Collectivities

Mass Behavior: Mass behavior refers to collective behavior among people dispersed over a wide geographic area.

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Mass Behavior

Rumor and Gossip: A common type of mass behavior is rumor, unsubstantiated information people spread informally, often by word of mouth. People pass along rumors through face-to-face communication, but todays modern technology spreads rumors faster and farther than ever 5/6/12 before.

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Rumor has three essential characteristics; Rumor thrives in a climate of ambiguity. Rumor is unstable. Rumor is difficult to stop.

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The only way to control rumors is for a believable source to issue a clear and convincing statement of facts. Officials establish rumor-control centers during a crisis in order to manage information.

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Gossip: Gossip is rumor about peoples personal affairs. Charles Horton Cooley (1962) explained that rumor involves an issue of concern to a large audience, but gossip interests only a small circle of people who know a particular person.
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Rumors spread widely, while gossip tends to be more localized. Communities use gossip as a means of social control, praising or scorning someone to encourage conformity to local norms.

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Public Opinion and Propaganda

Public opinion is widespread attitudes about controversial issues. Exactly who is, or is not, included in any public depends on the issue involved. On any given issue, a small share of people offer no opinion at all because of ignorance or indifference.
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Even on some important issues, many people dont know enough to have clear opinions. Over time, as well, public interest in issues rises and falls. Also, on any issue, not every ones opinion carries the same weight.

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Some categories of people have more clout because they are better educated, wealthier, or better connected. Small, well organized groups also can have a big effect on public policy. Physicians, represent a very small share of U.S population but they have a lot to say about Health Care 5/6/12 the United States. in

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Propaganda: Special interest groups and political leaders all try to shape public tastes and attitudes by using propaganda, information presented with the intention of shaping public opinion. Although the term has negative connotations, propaganda is not necessarily false.
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A thin line separates information from propaganda; the difference depends mostly on the presenters intention. We offer information to lighten others; we use propaganda to sway an audience towards some viewpoint.
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Political speeches and commercial advertising may disseminate propaganda in an effort to steer people towards thinking or acting in some specific way.

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Fashions and Fads

Fashions and fads also involve people spread over a large area. A fashion is a social pattern favored by a large number of people. Peoples tastes in clothing, music, and automobiles, as well as ideas about politics, change often, going in and out of fashion.
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In preindustrial societies, clothing and personal appearance change little, reflecting traditional style, women and men, the rich and the poor, lawyers and carpenters wear distinctive clothes and hairstyles that reflect their occupations and social standings.
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In industrial societies, established style gives way to changing fashion. Modern people care less about tradition and are often eager to try out new life styles. Higher rates of social mobility also cause people to use their looks to make a statement about themselves.
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Fashion moves downward through a class structure. Eventually fashion loses its prestige when too many average people now share the look, so the rich move on to something new.

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Fad is an unconventional social pattern embrace briefly but enthusiastically. Fads, sometimes called crazes, are common in high income societies, where many people have the money to spend on amusing, it often frivolous, products.
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Fads capture the public imagination but quickly burn out. Because fashions reflect basic cultural values, they tend to stay around for a while. Therefore, a fashion, but rarely a fad becomes a more lasting part of popular culture.
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