People often behave differently in crowds. Psychological mechanisms such as crowding, conformity, and social facilitation explain this. Anonymity, group pressure, and the presence of others influence behavior, and understanding these factors helps to make fair and accurate judgments.
These days, there are many reports of violent incidents in the news. There are many articles that make me frown when I read them, such as random assaults, sexual assaults against young children, and assaults against the elderly on buses. These incidents weigh heavily on our hearts and reveal the dark side of society. However, after these things happen, when people talk about them, they usually say that the person is inherently a bad person. But it should be remembered that a person’s behavior is influenced not only by the strength of his inner self, but also by the circumstances and environment surrounding him. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, people are influenced by those around them.
Although this is sometimes seen in Korea, there is a custom in the United States of taking off one’s clothes and parading around the neighborhood on the last day of school or on the day of graduation. Of course, from the side, they look like crazy people, but not all of them are really crazy. In this way, people in the crowd do things they wouldn’t normally do, and this phenomenon is called a mob phenomenon. If you interpret it literally, it means “self-collapse,” which refers to the disappearance of the self that usually controls me. My usual self is kept in check, but in a crowd such checks tend to relax. A striking example of this phenomenon can be found in Mann’s 1981 study. It is the result of a study of the psychology of people watching from below when someone says they are going to commit suicide at the top of a building. When there are few people looking down, the people on the building are worried about the people on the building. This is ethically and logically obvious. But when many people are looking down, when they are in a crowd, the attitude of the crowd changes, and someone comes out and tells them to jump. The crowd phenomenon is also affected by anonymity. The crowd phenomenon that occurs when anonymity is guaranteed is evidenced by malicious comments about people’s deaths. Are all the people who write hateful comments personally problematic? Anonymity has suppressed their usual self-control.
In addition, crowd psychology often leads people to ignore everyday social norms. Why do people do things they would not normally do in a crowd? It is because of the psychological pressure and desire to conform that individuals feel in a group. Individuals feel a strong sense of identity as a member of a group and, as a result, become sympathetic to the group’s actions. This phenomenon can work in a positive way, but it can also have negative consequences. For example, if violent behavior occurs during a peaceful protest, it may be caused by the psychology of the group, not the individuals. Therefore, we need to understand the psychological changes that occur in crowds and recognize how group forces work.
The phenomenon of conformity is also a pattern of behavior that is influenced by the environment. Conformity is literally following the people around you. Following and obeying the law, speaking and acting in a civilized manner are examples of conformity. However, slaughtering civilians in war is also an example of conformity. Thus, conformity has both positive and negative effects. A group suicide can be cited as an extreme example of the dysfunction of conformity. In the United States, a simple social group created by Jim Jones later led to the unprecedented event of 918 people taking drugs and committing suicide as a group in the belief that the earth was going to end. This is not simply a religious belief, but it is suggested that it is caused by the phenomenon of conformity, where people do something because someone else is doing it. There is a famous and interesting experiment on how well people can synchronize. The experiment involves putting seven students in a room and asking them to solve a problem. The problem is very simple. They are given three lines, A, B, and C, and asked to tell the number of the longest one. The lengths of the three segments are clearly distinguishable and can be easily matched by anyone, but six out of seven subjects are in collusion with the experimenter and all give the same incorrect answer. The experiment is designed to test how well a real subject can match the remaining six. These questions are repeated 12 times, and the results show that 70% of the subjects were in sync at least once.
You will often find that you are more efficient when working with others than when working alone. For example, a cyclist who records his or her cycling time alone may get a better time than when competing with two other cyclists. When children play a game of fishing, they may get better results when they play together than when they play alone. Even when jogging, people say they run faster when someone is sitting on a bench. Taken together, these results show that the mere fact that someone is around you has a positive effect on your behavior, which is called social facilitation. Conversely, however, there are cases in which your performance decreases when you are with someone else rather than when you are alone, which is called social inhibition. For example, if you are playing pool and many people are watching you, you may become more nervous and anxious and play worse than usual. This phenomenon is often observed among beginners, but the opposite is true for experts: they play better when there are people around. As a result, when other people are around, we get excited and our behavior tends to be in the direction that we usually dominate. People who are good at pool play better when others are around, while people who are not good at pool play worse when others are around. The phenomenon of social facilitation shows that one’s presence can inadvertently influence the behavior of others.
Aggression, conformity, and social facilitation are psychological research findings that show that patterns of behavior in a crowd are different from the norm. The power that a person’s situation exerts over them can actually break their nature. Therefore, when evaluating a person’s behavior, it is important to remember that the behavior is not only due to the person’s inner self, but also to the situation at the time, and to avoid making hasty judgments. It is very important to consider not only an individual’s disposition but also environmental factors in understanding human behavior. This will help you make fairer and more accurate judgments.
By understanding the social implications and psychological mechanisms, we will be able to build a better society. Furthermore, based on this understanding, we should strive to analyze the background and causes of others’ behavior, rather than simply criticizing them, and seek more constructive solutions. After all, society is made up of the sum of all its members, and each individual’s behavior is deeply related to the shape of that society.
