1.0 Introduction
A crowd is a temporary collection of people who gather around some person or event and who are conscious of and influenced by one another. Crowds differ from other social groups primarily in that they are short-lived, are only loosely structured, and use conventional spaces or buildings for unconventional purposes.
A crowd is quickly created and quickly dissolved. It is an unorganized manifestation occurring in a world of organization. Often the people collected in a garden for a picnic are called crowd but instead of calling them a crowd they may be termed aggregates. The crowd is a physical compact aggregation of human beings brought into direct, temporary and unorganized contact, reaching mostly to the same stimuli and in a similar way. A crowd is always a transitory and unstable organization.
2.0.Definitions
Maclver defines crowd as a “physical compact aggregation of human beings brought into direct, temporary and unorganized contact with one another.”
Kimball Young defines crowd as a “gathering of a considerable number of persons around a centre or point of common attraction.”
According to Contrill “crowd is a congregate group of individuals who have temporarily identified themselves with common values and who are expressing similar emotions.”
3.0.Characteristics of Crowd
The following are the characteristic features of a crowd:
1) Physical presence
Without such physical presence there can be no crowd. The size of the crowd is limited by the distance, which the eye can see and the ear can hear. Since people cannot remain physically present for any great length of time, this means that the crowd is a temporary social group. The crowd is unorganized. It may have a leader but it has no division of labour. As members of the crowd all the individuals are alike because it has no organization which can utilize the individual differences.
2) Anonymity
Crowds are anonymous, both because they are large and they are temporary. A crowd usually consists of a relatively large number of people. The members of a crowd do not know each other. They do not pay attention to other members as individuals. The individual in a crowd is free to indulge in behavior which he would ordinarily control. In a crowd moral responsibility is shifted from the individual to the group.
3) Narrow attention
The crowd is devoid of a wide attention. It directs its attention only to one or two things at one time. It is incapable of rationality and is easily carried by intuition. The members of the crowd easily come under the magic influences of a skilful orator.
4) The members of the crowd are not open to conviction.
They do not tolerate any opposition to their views, rather any opposition enrages them. They blindly accept the stories that suit their temper and openly reject any suggestion opposed to it.
5) Credulity
With an increase in the capacity of suggestibility, the credulity of a crowd also increases. According to Ross, “Rational analysis and test are out of question. The faculties we deal with are asleep.”
6) Low mental level
The ideas of a crowd are not wide or deep. They are charged with emotion. They do not see any reason in other’s arguments. One may make a crowd do anything. The individual’s power of volition is lost. It is all due to low mental level of the crowd.
7) Emotional
The members of a crowd are highly emotional, they respond not only to the emotional situation, but also the emotions to the emotions of other members of the crowd. Some members of the crowd get excited because the other members are excited. The members of the crowd do not know what they are doing. In the words of Bernhard, “it is usually some strong emotions or curiosity impulse which integrates the crowd.”
8) Irresponsibility
From the viewpoint of responsibility the members of the crowd show very poor sense of it. When panic or hatred seizes them, they do the most shameful acts of which they themselves repent afterwards. A crowd in action can be a terrifying thing. Lebon has written, “The sense of responsibility which always controls individuals disappears entirely in a crowd.”
4.0.Kinds of Crowds
Crowds are generally divided into two classes:
4.1. Active crowd
4.2. Inactive crowd
4.1. Active crowd
According to Kimball Young, “an active crowd is a mass of individuals who, with the common focus of attentions unleash certain deep lying attitudes, emotions and actions.” It is accidental and momentary. It is motivated by a common motive and behaves the same way to realize a common end.
The active crowd has been classified into five kinds:
4.1.1 Aggressive crowd
4.1.2 Panicky crowd
4.1.3 Acquisitive crowd
4.1.4 Expressive crowd
4.1.1. Aggressive crowd:
An aggressive crowd, as the name suggests, consists of people in an aggressive mood, capable of any destruction and inhumanity. It may commit arson and murder, rape and manhandling. The atmosphere is full of great excitement. The members of such a crowd are completely devoid of any reason or sense of poverty whatsoever.
The special features of an aggressive crowd are as following:
a) Intense emotionality
An aggressive crowd is marked is marked by intense emotionality. All individuals are in highly excited mood. In such a crowd we find one man shouting at the top of his voice, another waving his fists about, some running around, others manhandling.
b) Suggestibility
The reason of the individual is dulled in an aggressive crowd. Every one imitates everyone else. A handful of people by their tactical methods succeed in blunting the reason of the hundreds of people who do not know what and why of their actions.
c) Influence of rumour
Sometimes people collect in a crowd upon hearing some or the other rumour. A not unknown example is the rumour that a student has been beaten by a police constable at a cinema house. In no time many students gather together aroused to a high pitch of anger and having equipped themselves with haste rather than discrimination proceed towards the cinema house. They see a police constable on the crossroads and give him a beating who has nothing to do with the whole affair. They reach the cinema house and find there neither any student nor any constable.
d) Tendency of imitation
In an aggressive crowd the members imitate each other and do not employ their reasoning power.
e) Similar behavior
The behavior of the members of an aggressive crowd takes a single line. They are not prepared to listen to the arguments of the other side, neither are they interested in finding out the truth of the matter. Whatever has gone into their heads is difficult to be taken out by reason and arguments. They are bent up to the cause they have taken up to promote.
f) Low educational level
The aggressive crowd is generally composed of people who are not highly educated or are uneducated. Even in an aggressive crowd of students the most active ones are those who are not interested in studies. Serious and intelligent students rarely are the members of an aggressive crowd.
g) Importance of leader
In an aggressive crowd the leader plays a very important role in rousing the emotions of the members. He excites them with his words and his gestures. He is the first to attack and exhorts the crowd to make an attack. He sets the example, which the crowd follows. He exercises a magnetic influence upon the members.
4.1.2. Panicky crowd
A panicky crowd is one, which is fear stricken and whose members are running hither and thither to save their lives. During war time a panicky crowd is a common phenomenon. In a panicky crowd every member is aware of the presence of the trouble. There is a feeling of fear, which spreads like contagion. All members think of things going out of their control. Their prime concern is to save their lives and they exhibit a lot of courage to save their life. The members exhibit fear because of crisis and this causes a tendency to escape.
4.1.3. Acquisitive crowd
The acquisitive crowd is one whose members have gathered together in order to acquire something. A crowd before the cinema booking window is such a crowd. Likewise, a crowd before a rationing shop to get sugar is an acquisitive crowd. Thus the acquisitive crowd is composed of individuals whose object is to gain something.
4.1.4. Expressive crowd
In an expressive crowd the individuals gather together to give expression or to manifest their demands or sentiments. A not uncommon occurrence in the colleges is that the students come out of the examination hall whenever they find a question paper difficult or outside the prescribed course of study. They gather together before the principal’s office and put forth their demands that the examination be postponed and the question paper be reset. The members of an expressive crowd are interested more in voicing their grievances than in destruction. The expressive crowd may turn into an aggressive crowd if an effort is made to disperse it by violent means.
4.2. Inactive Crowd
An inactive crowd is rather an audience, which collect for some peaceful purpose, for example, to seek some information or to hear a religious discourse. The action of inactive crowd does nto show any change even after an hour or two whereas in an aggressive crowd changes can be seen after a few minutes only. The difference between the active crowd and inactive crwd is only relative. The active crowd is somewhat more active while the inactive crowd is relatively inactive. An inactive crowd may be classified into:
4.2.1. Information seeking crowd
4.2.2. Recreation seeking crowd
4.2.3. Conversation crowd
4.2.1. Information seeking crowd:
This type of group gets together to gain knowledge or collect information. The aim is information. The members behave in an organized manner. A leader is heart of a large number of people.
4.2.3. Recreation seeking crowd:
The aim of recreation seeking crowd is to be entertained. A crowd gathers to witness a cinema. The object of such crowd is recreation. The conduct of the members is not controlled.
4.2.4. Conversational crowd:
Such a crowd collects to exchange ideas and feelings for transformation. During election political parties try to convert the masses to their own way of thinking.
Lebon divided crowds into two categories:
1) Homogeneous and
2) Heterogeneneous.
The heterogeneous crowds may be anonymous like street crowds or non-anonymous like parliamentary assemblies. The homogeneous crowd may be sects, castes and classes.
Blumer divides crowds into four categories
1. the casual crowd
2. the conventional crowd
3. the expressive crowd and
4. the active crowd
5.0. Theories of crowd
Though it cannot be denied that the crowd also possesses a capacity for constructive work, yet its’ destructive character which has forced sociologists and psychologists to devote their attention to it. Many theories have been advanced to explain why the crowd behaves in a particular way.
5.1. Group mind theory:
According to the group mind theory the individual in the crowd loses his individuality and becomes a part of the crowd which comes to develop its own crowd consciousness. The crowd consciousness supplants the individual consciousness of the individuals. The members of the crowd participate in the crowd consciousness and act according to the stimulus provided by the crowd. The mentality of the individual members becomes de-individualized and he begins to act on an emotional level, which is common to all the participants. According to this theory, the crowd becomes so attuned that it responds only to the appeal, the slogans, and the ideas which are comfortable to the deindividualized mentality. The group- mind which is not the sum of the minds of the members of the group is a mind of its own distinct from minds working on different levels. Its working is based on emotions, appeals, suggestions and slogans. Its acts are less rational and more emotional. It is an irresponsible mind focusing its attention on some immediate object. Its mental level is very low. It becomes easily excited and acts in a hypnotic way. It is on this account that individuals behave most irrationally in a crowd than otherwise behave individually.
The Group- mind theory has been advocated by Lebon, Espinas, Trotter, Durkheim, McDougall Allport.
5.2. Lebon’s theory:
Lebon was the first writer to put forward the theory of group-mind in 1892. In his book crowds he has written, “the sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory but presenting very clearly defined characterstics.” Thus, according to Lebon, the different individuals in a group do not think individually but think experience and act through group mind. When individuals collect in a crowd, their individual minds become a part of the collective mind. The collective mind thinks in its own way and formulates its own ideas and thoughts which the individual minds do not formulate in their individuals capacities. In the crowd the mind of the individual acts in a manner in which it would not act if left alone.
Lebon has laid great emphasis on the unconscious motives. According to him, in a crowd these unconscious motives get more active. The individual is influenced by these unconscious motives and his own conscious motivation sinks into the background. In a group, the individual gets a sense of invincible power and hence, he tries to completely satisfy his instinctive passion in him.
5.3. Durkheim’s theory:
Durkheim has sought to explain group behavior in terms of collective consciousness. According to him, when people collect in a group, a collective consciousness is created by the mutual exchange of ideas and notions. Mind is another name for the flow of consciousness. When several minds meet together there is a flow of consciousness is created which is not just a collection of consciousness of various individuals. Just as a chemical compound of several elements but its qualities are different from the qualities of the consciousness of the individual. According to Durkheim, the social consciousness is more superior and comprehensive than the individual consciousness.
6.0. The social psychology of Crowds
Until recently, mobs were seen as little more than unchained beasts, spurred by powerful, violent urges and with no sense of reason. What people did in crowd was seen not as the collective action of rational humans, but as collective behavior that was the result of regression to primitive levels of psychology. A chief proponent of this psychological perspective was the Frenchman Gustave lebon. As far as Lebon was concerned, the old social system, with its privileges and security for elites like himself, was being threatened by emotionally volatile mobs. Lebon regarded mobs as purely irrational and destructive, capable of treating apart the social order.
In his book the psychology of crowds Lebon argued that involvement in a crowd puts individuals “in a possession of a collective mind” that makes them think, feel, and act quite differently than they would if each person were alone. Crowds, Lebon maintained, gain control over people much as hypnotists do. Waves of emotions sweep through crowds, infecting one person after another.
7.0.Conclusion
In our everyday life we use the word ‘crowd’ without any consideration for any group of people. If more than expected number of people gather at a place, we say that there is crowd or rush. If there are 10-15 customers at a shop, we generally say that it is a crowd there. But in psychology only more number of people cannot be called crowd. From psychology view point, the existence of crowd is not based on more number of people, but physical presence of people is needed for making it a crowd. People so gather in a crowd that they do not establish indirect or definite relations. The attention and feelings of people should be toward a common thing, person or incident to make it a crowd. The gathered persons are in such proximity to each other that they are alive to the presence to other. They are aware of their collective power. Their focal point too is one and their desires are directed to one point. If all these characteristics are found in a gathering, we would say that a crowd has been created according to psychological view point.
No comments:
Post a Comment