Everyone who has ever watched a movie has
an idea in their head of the stereotypical
angry mob with torches and pitchforks, and
most of us have a lot of preconceived notions
about how crowds will behave.
People tend to think, in general, that crowds
are relatively easy to manipulate, and that
oftentimes people will see terrible things
happening to others and just let it go because
they are part of a crowd.
The truth behind all of this is a lot more
complicated, and many researchers have spent
countless hours studying the behaviors of
crowds for all kinds of public safety related
reasons.
In today’s article, we will go over 10 fascinating
facts and misconceptions about crowd psychology.
10.
If You Need Help And You Are In A Crowd, Ask
Specific People For Help
One of the most important things to know about
crowds is the way diffusion of responsibility
works.
The idea is essentially that the larger a
crowd is, the less likely people will be to
go out of their way to help another person.
The reason is that they feel more like somebody
will likely have it covered, because there
are so many people around.
Now, this isn’t necessarily true if someone
is bleeding out on the ground.
If anyone is trained in paramedic skills,
they will likely stop and not just assume
that the person doesn’t need help, or that
someone else will deal with it.
They may even see another medical professional
helping, and see a fellow medical type who
needs their assistance and step in.
However, in a situation where the need for
help isn’t quite as obvious, and it isn’t
a traumatic injury or the like — or even
if it is and you need help right that second
but it isn’t quite as obvious — experts
say there are a couple important things to
do.
The first is to ask specific people, and not
just appeal to the crowd at large.
Keep asking people until somebody helps, or
you can find somebody who knows how to do
what you need.
It’s also important to be specific about
what you need, and what’s wrong, so others
can help you as quickly as possible.
Humans want to help others, but they can get
confused and shut down.
If you address them directly, you remove their
confusion, and get them to take action.
9.
The Story Of Kitty Genovese Is Not Necessarily
The Best Example — It Has Been Muddled
Many people have heard of a young woman named
Kitty Genovese.
She was even brought up in the movie The Boondock
Saints as a justification to go around as
vigilantes randomly and wantonly murdering
mobsters.
The story goes that the young woman was being
murdered in front of multiple witnesses and
no one did anything.
It has been repeated by the media and amateur
psychologists for years, and has been used
as evidence that the bigger the crowd, the
more likely people are to just ignore something
awful happening right in front of them — even
murder.
However, the truth — while sad — is a
lot more banal.
The woman came home at about 2:30 AM when
there weren’t many witnesses around.
A man who had been stalking her attacked and
stabbed her.
A neighbor from upstairs, who didn’t have
time to come down, yelled for the attacker
to leave her alone.
He temporarily left, and Kitty ducked out
of sight behind her apartment building to
hide, now seriously injured.
The man came back 10 minutes later and stabbed
and robbed her.
Kitty was soon found by a neighbor, who immediately
called the police.
Perhaps the first neighbor who called out
should have called the police or followed
up, but he yelled out and the attacker initially
left.
The next person to find her immediately called
for help.
There were also a couple other neighbors who
may have been eyewitnesses and claim they
called the police, but the police couldn’t
find logs of it.
Regardless, the popular story that there were
30-plus witnesses that didn’t try to help
her is just a complete fabrication.
8.
It’s Actually Hard To Stir A Crowd Into
A Mob-Like Frenzy Without Other Factors
Many people like to think of crowds as a mob
of panicky people about to go crazy at any
moment and tear things up.
If you insert your least favorite group, it’s
easy to imagine a crowd of people quickly
ending up in a frenzy and rioting.
This isn’t really accurate in terms of real
behavior, though.
Generally, even people who have been pushed
to their limit don’t go out and do violent
things, even at the behest or with the anonymity
of a crowd, unless they were already the type
of person who was looking for an excuse to
do something like that to begin with.
If you actually want to truly stir up a crowd,
you’re going to find it quite difficult.
Even in places like, for example, Ferguson,
when the tension was at its very worst the
vast majority of the crowd remained peaceful,
even while a handful of rioters caused trouble
and the police themselves (according to a
report by the Department of Justice) illegally
attacked the protesters.
Even given a very good “excuse” to cause
trouble, the vast majority of people are simply
not violent, and cannot be goaded into violence
without absolute necessity to do so.
7.
In General, Crowds Stay Calmer In Panicky
Situations Than You Would Think
Most people have a lot of preconceived notions
about crowds, and one of the biggest is that
crowds tend to be fairly jittery, and can
go crazy at a moment’s notice if the right
(or wrong) thing happens.
Many assume that in the event of a shooting,
bombing, fire, or what have you, people will
behave in a crazy fashion and will tend to
get themselves and others inadvertently killed
or hurt.
The facts, though, don’t really bear this
out.
Children at schools with shootings tend to
exit in a very organized fashion, even when
doing so might seem a little slower, and they
tend to rely on each other and work as a group
to get to safety.
While some may argue this behavior has been
partly trained, the behavior of those in the
towers on 9/11 certainly was not.
Accounts say that most people actually filed
quite calmly and civilly to the rescue routes
from the building, and that this ability to
stay calm and not panic actually saved lives.
Human beings are quite hardy, and do not devolve
into a mass of terrified tears the moment
they get around a lot of other people and
are faced with a crisis.
6.
Crowds Are Not Nearly As Naturally Submissive
To Authority As You Might Believe
One of the most common beliefs about crowds
is that they are naturally submissive to authority,
but that isn’t really the case.
In fact, as anyone who has worked crowd security
can tell you (even those who are obviously
official police officers), crowds can be just
as unruly or rude toward those who have authority
over them as they are to anyone else.
In fact, oftentimes that feeling of anonymity
or being in a bigger crowd can actually give
people a false sense of the power they do
have to defy authority.
Of course, this is really just an illusion,
and unless the crowd is actually rioting,
if the police notice you doing something illegal
or harassing them to that point, the fact
you are surrounded by people will not protect
you.
Regardless, police have also observed that
crowds can be difficult to get to follow simple
instructions, like which way to safely go,
and that sometimes it seems even normally
obedient citizens can end up defiant when
they have the anonymity of a crowd.
This doesn’t mean people are necessarily
badly intentioned or trying to defy authority,
just that trying to corral a crowd can often
be like herding cats.
5.
Oftentimes, Crowd Related Tragedies Are Accidental
And Those Involved Were Unaware
The truth is that crowd related tragedies
are almost never the result of people consciously
trying to do bad things, or even being rabble-roused
into doing terrible things.
Sadly, sometimes the problem is just bad crowd
management.
To properly understand how people move, you
have to also understand how they think, and
some people are paid a lot of money these
days to figure this stuff out before any big
public spaces are built — especially sports
stadiums.
One of the reasons for this are incidents
like the one that happened in Sheffield, England
back in 1989.
93 people were killed and over 180 were injured
due to bad crowd management at Hillsborough
Stadium.
The officials were never sure where exactly
the problem started, but believe it was a
combination of inadequate barriers, as well
as too many people being let in too soon in
the wrong places without enough overflow.
This led to many people being inadvertently
crushed to death, or simply suffocated due
to lack of air.
Those causing the crushing had no idea they
were doing it, and many were likely caught
up in the mess themselves and just afraid
they would end up another casualty.
This is why theme parks spend so much money
on making proper open spaces, and carefully
controlling not just the amount of people
in the park, but also go to great lengths
to psychologically trick people into spreading
out as much as possible.
The right crowd management techniques can
prevent an entirely avoidable tragedy.
4.
Crowds Are Not The Homogenous, Hivemind-Like
Herd Beasts Many Picture
Despite any misconceptions you have about
crowds, you are probably pretty convinced
that the bigger a crowd gets, the more likely
it is to become more a single, hivemind–like
entity.
But crowds tend to be way more diverse and
varied, and this usually reflects in their
thinking and actions as well.
If you have ever seen a political caucus take
shape, it’s a reminder that just because
someone is in a crowd doesn’t mean they
suddenly have a desire to agree with all those
around them.
This notion likely exists because a lot of
the time when people are in crowds, it’s
due to something that brings us together for
a similar reason.
Oftentimes people are going to a sports game,
and even if the other teams fans are there,
they are often in a different section.
Or, someone might go to a political rally,
or an amusement park where everyone likes
the same kind of entertainment.
But when you think about it, just a general
crowd, anywhere, doesn’t really have anything
in particular to bring it together, and is
just made up of a bunch of random people,
all of whom may view things very differently.
3.
How Suggestible A Crowd Is Or How Potentially
Violent Depends Mostly On Its Makeup
As we mentioned above, crowds are really just
a bunch of random people, and tend to be pretty
diverse, unless we are talking about a special
event that literally brings one type of crowd
together.
This gives lie to the myth that crowds are
typically violent or suggestible.
The truth is that the tendency to violence
or to do what a rabble rouser wants really
just depends on the makeup of the crowd.
If a crowd is of a more political persuasion
and tends toward violence, then trying to
stir them up into a hostile frenzy might work.
However, a crowd of people at a Disney theme
park is unlikely to be so suggestible, and
you may struggle to find even a small group
at such a place that really has any desire
to even hear your message — you’ll probably
be carted off pretty fast.
Even those prone to violence won’t necessarily
do so in front of a crowd — it may even
be quite the opposite.
While some may feel a bit emboldened by a
crowd to protest for causes, or to take part
in a group that otherwise they may not feel
strong enough to claim ownership of, that
is a big step from actually committing violence
or breaking laws.
Many people who would consider breaking laws
also don’t want to get in trouble for it,
and tend to not want to be seen doing so — being
in front a crowd doesn’t suddenly change
who they are inside.
2.
In A Volatile Situation, Multiple Groups Are
Likely To Form, Instead Of One Violent Mob
In movies and other popular media, we’ve
been given the idea that when things get really
crazy, we will see one violent mob form, or
just one mob in general even if it isn’t
violent.
However, unless you actually have police or
other official groups to truly and fully restore
order, that is not how it usually works.
Crowds are not one homogenous entity and people
tend to group up based on others who think
and act like them.
Even in a very short amount of time, case
studies have shown that, given the chance,
people will very quickly start splitting up
into smaller groups that better fit their
needs.
There is also no reason to believe that these
groups would work against each other.
In a true emergency situation where there
isn’t full social order, not only do people
tend to organize quickly into smaller groups,
but the various groups tend to still work
together for the common good.
In general, people like to maintain a certain
sense of individuality, but they also see
a lot of conscious benefit to working with
others for the common good.
By organizing into smaller groups with people
like us, but still working with different
groups, we find the best possible compromise.
1.
Groupthink Is More About Not Angering Those
With Authority
One of the most interesting facts about crowd
psychology is the phenomenon of “groupthink.”
For those not familiar with it, groupthink
is the tendency in larger groups to not bring
up issues that may rock the boat, or cause
controversy or issues even when you know those
issues are crucial.
The famous example of this is the Challenger
explosion, where groupthink is said to have
led to the horrific and totally avoidable
loss of life.
Some even teach it in psychology class with
a dramatic reenactment, but many people have
learned entirely the wrong lesson from it.
Some people hear groupthink and think of it
as a situation where there was a large group,
and thus people felt less desire to create
controversy, or just bring up something that
could mess things up in front of so many people.
However, “groupthink” doesn’t really
have so much to do with groups — large or
small — but more of people’s innate fear
of upsetting those with authority over them.
Those in charge really wanted the launch to
go off without delay, and fixing even an incredibly
minor issue could potentially lead to a very,
very long delay, because space flight often
has a very short window to hit.
Groupthink is a phenomenon wherein people
are so worried in the short term about upsetting
their bosses that they don’t push to do
something that will upset them now, in order
to avoid upsetting them worse in the future.
Realistically, groupthink could probably occur
in a setting of a one on one with an employee
and a boss — people’s short term fear
can override their common sense.
