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Essay on riots
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It amazes me at how much influence crowds can have over individuals. Deindividuation is stated as “the process of losing one’s sense of personal identity, which makes it easier to behave in ways inconsistent with one’s normal values” (Kenrick, Neuberg, & Cialdini, 2015, p. 394). This type of behavior can be seen in protests that turn into riots. One may be there for the protest, but get caught up in the action as a riot starts, therefore looting stores even though one knows that is not the proper way to behave. In your PowerPoint you state that in groups’ people “lose their self-identity and loosen inhibitions” (Lettwich, 2017, PowerPoint). This is especially true since in crowds people feel a sense of anonymity. Our textbook states that
“Something happens to individuals when they collect in a group. They think and act differently than they would on their own. (17)” States Carol Tavris in her article, “In Groups We Shrink From Loner’s Heroics”. Tavris believes people who are in groups tend to act in a more sluggish manor than those alone. She states many examples of this theory in her article, including the story of Kitty Genovese which is stated in the first paragraph. Kitty was stabbed repeatedly and killed in front of her New York apartment. No one did anything to stop this heinous action from taking place. Within her essay she obtains rhetorical appeals to prove that her statements are plausible to the audience.
In the teleplay “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” written by Rod Serling, a small street in a suburban American town falls into chaos after they lose all electricity, and in an effort to find the monsters responsible, they become animals. They search for a scapegoat and let their imagination et the best of them because “for a moment their fear almost turns their walk into a wild stampede, but Steve's voice, loud, incisive, and commanding, makes them stop. ‘Wait a minute...wait a minute! Let's not be a mob!’ The people stop as a group, seem to pause for a moment, and then much more quietly and slowly start to walk across the street. ” (Rod Serling ?). The residents of Maple Street fall victim to herd mentality. They rush to find the culprit and they lose all sense of moral and judgement. As they are about to become a mob they listen to Steve as he advises that they do not. All the residents of Maple Street listen to him and sure, he did use mob mentality to do good, but it goes to show the amount of power one man holds. Similarly, in the article “Why People Follow The Crowd” written by ABC News, the article discusses how humans are willing to let go of their beliefs, morals, and
The American Behavioral Scientist, 44(12), 2252-2268. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214769221?accountid=45049. Gray, M. (2014). The 'Standard'. The L.A. riots: 15 years after Rodney King.
The avoidance group is people who we want to distance ourselves from. The author states that the reason we do this is because we want our behavior to be like the group wants us to be, and if anybody disagrees we stay away from them. The final group is We like to do it in groups. The first point is Phenomenon Deindividuation. Phenomenon Deindividuation is where a individual indentities becomes lost with in a group. The second point is Group shopping. Group shopping and behavior and home shoppong parties: People more likely to buy more when shopping in a group, where pressure to crnform may be intense (bandwagon effect). The reason we do this is because if we dont buy what everyone else is buying then we can become a outcast. The last part of the story is Conformity. Conformity is a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group. The norms of conformity are unspoken rules that grovern many aspects of consumption. There are five factors that influence of conformity. They are: Cultural Pressures, Fear Of Deviance, Commitment, Group Unanimity, Size, and Expertise and finally Susceptibility to Interpersonal
The world is divided up into numerous things: Countries, states, cities, communities, etc. However, when looking at the big scope of things, one can group the vast amount of people into a society. This society is where the majority lie in the scheme of things - in other words, the common people. Individuals do exist in this society, but they are scarce in a world of conformism. Society’s standards demands an individual to conform, and if the individual refuses they are pushed down by society.
This sentiment becomes explicitly apparent in the context of mobs, specifically, Colonel Sherburn gives a tirade to the mob planning to hang him and he states that “‘Why don’t your juries hang murderers? Because they’re afraid the man 's friends will shoot them in the back, in the dark -- and it 's just what they would do. ‘So they always acquit; and then a man goes into the night, with a hundred masked cowards at his back, and lynches the rascal’” (134). According to this speech, Sherburn asserts that the entire mob prioritizes self-preservation over enforcing any form of justice. This is true in both the crowds prosecution of Colonel Sherburn after his broad daylight murder of Boggs and the Colonel’s statements on how the crowd allows for potential criminals and murderers to escape trial. Ironically, the release of dangerous individuals into society is more of a destructive behavior. This passage reveals that crowds will allow the endangerment a single person to ensure the preservation of the majority, or alternate group, in this case, the Jury sacrifices the prosecution by acquitting the alleged killer. Thus, the fashion in which mobs think actually hinders the enforcement of moral
Polletta, Francesca and James Jasper. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 27.1 (2001): 283–305. Print.
To a certain extent I do agree with Thomas, people do act worse when they gather in groups; such as all thats happening in the County of Los Angeles about the water issues, and Hurricane Haiyan that recently struck the Philippines in early November of this year; but we also cannot forget about all the charities and event that raises money for organiations to help the people who needs it in various ways.
Identity is a substantial component of a person, it’s something that determines who they are and help establish themselves with people who you find enjoyable and shares similar interests. It could bring people together, and provide a sense of belonging and unity. However, there are times where these people who are within certain cliques are perceived more negatively or believe that all people within that group perpetually have a certain set of traits. In most cases, these negative perceptions lead to discrimination and conflict, and obscures the positive and more genuine traits of an individual. In S.E. Hinton’s book, The Outsiders, there is a group of poor and lower-middle class teens who are labeled as greasers. This group of wild teenagers
History repeating itself, manslaughter, homicide, and riots are all forms of mob mentality of which is shown in the book, A tale of Two Cities, by Charles Darnay. Taking the given words into consideration, ask yourself “Have I ever taken part in mob mentality?” The answer for most people will be “yes”. Mob mentality is something so negative and aggressive yet we still take a part in it. We are all too caught up in trying to fit in with everyone else, that we make it into something that isn’t such a big deal to us.
...r the same cause. These riots had so much power that eventually they were “brought into the workforce to hold jobs from which they had previously been excluded” (Weisser). The behaviors of large groups are what identify the mob mentality of a crowd; it gives power to society, just as the community experiences as the result of the annual lottery.
In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us. We, as humans, hold individualism in the highest regard yet fail to realize that groups diminish our individuality. Lessing writes, “when we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does... but we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group” (p. 334). Groups have the tendency to generate norms, or standards for behavior in certain situations. Not following these norms can make you stand out and, therefore, groups have the ability to influence our thoughts and actions in ways that are consistent with the groups’. Lessing’s essay helps set the context to understand the experiments that social psychologists Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted to explain conformity and obedience.
Polletta, F., & Jasper, J. M. (2001). Collective identity and social movements. Annual review of Sociology, 283-305.
Societies that esteem social conformity view defiance as a by-product of insolence rather than an act of courage. Isolation of individuals that do not abide by the set restrictions is another common characteristic of systems that encourage mob mentalities. As a result, in order to be accepted by peers, individuals often have to function based on societal expectations. Some consider pursuing their own opinions and ideas against the social norms. This often garners backlash and hostilities from other members of society, ranging from physical and verbal abuse to denial of individual’s competence and sanity to complete alienation from society. Although some people are able to champion their freedom of expression and right to opinions over the need
Introduction: Philip Zimbardo once said, “Treating other people as insignificant, as anonymous, as dehumanized, bothered me very much. So one of the things I studied later on was the psychology of deindividuation.” He soon proposed the idea of deindividuation to be a mental state in which a person is “less concerned with the future, with normal societal constraints on behavior, and with the consequence of their actions.” (Gilovich 2013) This state usually happens when one is absorbed in a large group.