Answer to Question 1
French scholar Gustave Le Bon developed a social psychological theory of collective
behavior called contagion theory. Contagion theory attempts to explain how moods,
attitudes, and behavior are communicated rapidly within a collectivity and why they are
accepted by others. According to Le Bon, people are more likely to engage in
antisocial behavior in a crowd because they are anonymous and feel invulnerable. A
crowd takes on a life of its own that is larger than the beliefs or actions of any one
person. Because of its anonymity, the crowd transforms individuals from rational beings
into a single organism with a collective mind. Emotions such as fear and hate are
contagious in crowds because people experience a decline in personal responsibility
they will do things as a collectivity that they would never do when acting alone. Critics
of contagion theory, such as those who support emergent norm theory, point out that
crowds are not irrational. Rather, new norms are developed in a rational way to fit the
immediate situation.
Answer to Question 2
Blumer developed a typology in which crowds are divided into four categories: (1)
Casual crowds are relatively large gatherings of people who happen to be in the same
place at the same time if they interact at all, it is only briefly. People in a shopping mall
or a subway car are examples of casual crowds. Members of a casual crowd have
nothing in common. (2) Conventional crowds are made up of people who come
together for a scheduled event and thus share a common focus. Examples include
religious services, graduation ceremonies, concerts, and college lectures. Each of these
events has preestablished schedules and norms. Because these events occur regularly,
interaction among participants is much more likely in turn, the events would not occur
without the crowd, which is essential to the event. (3) Expressive crowds provide
opportunities for the expression of some strong emotion (such as joy, excitement, or
grief). People release their pent-up emotions in conjunction with other persons
experiencing similar emotions. Examples include worshippers at religious revival
services mourners lining the streets when a celebrity, public official, or religious leader
has died and revelers assembled at Mardi Gras in New Orleans or on New Year's
Eve at Times Square in New York. (4) Acting crowds are collectivities so intensely
focused on a specific purpose or object that they may erupt into violent or destructive
behavior. Mobs, riots, and panics are examples of acting crowds. A mob is a highly
emotional crowd whose members engage in, or are ready to engage in, violence against
a specific targeta person, a category of people, or physical property. Mob behavior in
the United States has included lynching, fire bombings, effigy hangings, and hate
crimes. Mob violence tends to dissipate relatively quickly once a target has been
injured, killed, or destroyed. Compared with mob actions, riots may be of somewhat
longer duration. A riot is violent crowd behavior that is fueled by deep-seated emotions
but not directed at one specific target. Riots are often triggered by fear, anger, and
hostility. A panic is a form of crowd behavior that occurs when a large number of
people react to a real or perceived threat with strong emotions and self-destructive
behavior. McPhail and Wohlstein added protest crowds to the four types of crowds
identified by Blumer. Protest crowds engage in activities intended to achieve specific
political goals. Examples include sit-ins, marches, boycotts, blockades, and strikes.
Some protests take the form of civil disobediencenonviol ent action that seeks to
change a policy or law by refusing to comply with it.
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