Sociology – Chapter 21

1. Sociology – Chapter 21

2. How the crowd transforms the individual Collective behavior  extraordinary activities • Carried out by groups of people • Examples: lynching, rumors, panics, urban legends • Charles MacKay • MacKay noticed people “when mad” and did “disgraceful and violent things” when formed in a crowd • People have a “herd mentality” • Gustave Lebon • People feel anonymous in crowds • People feel less accountable for what they do in crowds • People develop feelings of invincibility and think they could do anything • Collective mind: Gustave’s term for the tendency of people in a crowd to fee, think and act in extraordinary ways

3. How the crowd transforms the individual (cont.) • Robert Park • Circular reaction: Robert Park’s term for a back-and-forth communication between the members of a crown, whereby a “collective impulse” is transmitted • Collective impulse dominates all members of the crowd • Herbert Blumer • Identified five stages that precede what he called an acting crowd • Acting crowd: an excited group moving towards a goal • Models today’s police manuals on crowd behavior

4. Blumer’s 5 Stages of an Acting Crowd • Five Stages of an Acting Crowd • Tension or unrest (people become apprehensive, which makes them vulnerable to rumors and suggestions) • Exciting event (an event occurs) • Milling (people talk about the exciting event) • A common object of attention (attend forms around the event) • Common impulses (people form an agreement about the event

5. A SHORT Time to Ponder: • Why do you think people behave differently in a collective setting? • Why do you think people feel less responsible for their actions during collective behavior? • How do you think the collective mindset of a person comes to be?

6. The Contemporary View: Rationality of the Crowd • Everyone is collected in a mob in is organized (not chaotic) • Minimax strategy – people make effort to minimize their costs and maximize their rewards • Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian • Emergent norms – idea that people develop new norms to cope with a new situation • used to explain crowd behavior • In a group, not normal behavior can become normal

7. Emergent Norms • ego involved – people feel personal stake in the unusual event • concerned – personal interest in the event, but care less than the ego-involved • insecure – care little about the matter, but they join the crowd because it gives them power • curious spectator – care little about the issue, but they are inquisitive • exploiters – don’t care about the event, but their for their own purpose

8. A SHORT Time to Ponder • How could collective behavior involve unusual norms? • How does Pettie’s mob include the different players in a collective group? • Do you agree with the analysis of these 5 groups? Do you think they should take one away? Add a category? Why?

9. Forms of Collective Behavior • Riots • Rumors • Panics • Mass hysteria • Moral panics • Fads & Fashions • Urban legends

10. Forms of Collective Behavior: Riots • Riots – violent crowd behavior directed at people and/or property • Who: any group • Causes: frustration & feelings of deprivation • Precipitating events bring up all the feelings to a boiling point and it bursts or erupts in collective violence • Example: A while police officer in Los Angeles was caught on video beating an African American traffic violator. • The case went to trial (for beating the man), and was found not guilty. • Jury: 11 whites, 1 Asian • Anger led to people setting fires (rioting) • 54 people died, • 2,328 insured • 4,000 fires set to properties

11. Forms of Collective Behavior: Rumors • Rumors – unfounded information spread among people • About: Rumors deal with a subject that is important to an individual, and they replace ambiguity with some form of certainty • Example: Disney and supposed subliminal messaging (The Little Mermaid containing a bishop with a boner)

12. Forms of Collective Behavior: Panics • Panic (condition of being so fearful that one cannot function normally and may even flee) • People react to widespread anxiety about world conditions with anxiety • Many times influenced by media • Most times people are frightened but not in a panic • Panic can be caused because of rumors • Seeing people panic causes others to panic • Not everyone panics: parents often help children, men often women in disasters (Example: fire) • In life threatening situations, when panic is expected, there is actually order • Many works take responsibility to help people when on the job

13. Forms of Collective Behavior: Mass Hysteria • Mass hysteria (imagined threat that causes physical symptoms among a large number of people) • Explained by saying “it happens” • Mass hysteria follows basic principles of human behavior • Happens in many cultures • Does not have a found explanation for cause • Example 1: tarantula bits in Italy hundreds of years ago • Example 2: people sick after drinking Coke in France and Belgium

14. Forms of Collective Behavior: Moral Panics • Moral panics (a fear that grips a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society, followed by hostility, sometimes violence, toward those thought responsible) • Fueled by the mass media and center around a sense of danger, and/or by rumor • Fed by rumors and thrive on uncertainty and anxiety • Example: In 1990 a rumor swept the country that thousands of kidnapped children were sold to Satanist who ritually killed them. • How would you react?

15. Forms of Collective Behavior: Fads and Fashions • Fads (novel form of behavior that briefly catches people’s attention) • there are many forms of fad • Craze (a short and intense fad) – Ex. Tickle Me Elmo dolls and Beanie Babies • Fashion (a fad that lasts, such as furniture & clothing) • What are some common fads that you know?

16. Forms of Collective Behavior: Urban Legends • Urban legends (stories with an ironic twist that are usually not true • Jan Brunvand • passed from “friend to friend” • Gain credibility by naming specific people or events • Urban legends = Modern morality stories (teaches moral lesson about life) • What are some urban legends that you know?

17. Social Movements • Social movement (a large group of people who are organized to promote or resist some social change) • Famous Examples • Abolitionist (anti-slavery) crusade • Civil rights movement • White supremacist • Woman's movement • Animal rights movement • Environmental movement

18. Social Movements: Motivations • Proactive social movement • Change something in society • Reactive social movement • Fight social change • Social movement organization (an organization people develop to further the goals of a social movements) • Head social movements • Examples: NAACP, KKK

19. Types of Social Movements • Alternative – change one specific thing about people • Redemptive – change people totally • Reformative – change specific aspect of society • Transformative – everything in society • Millenarian – change something based on the prophecy of coming social upheaval • Tranformational – change on condition around the world • New type of social movement • Metaformative – changing everything

20. A SHORT Time to Ponder • Is all social change positive? • Is social change good for the world? • Do groups like the NAACP and KKK even out?

21. Tactics of Social Movements • Levels of Membership and Publics (6 levels) • “The inner core” • Tactics chose largely depend on the predisposition and backgrounds of the inner core • “the committed” • “the less committed” • “the sympathetic public” • Recruitment ground • “hostile public” • “indifferent public” • Public (in this context, a dispersed group of people relevant to a social movement)

22. Tactics of Social Movements • Relationship to authorities • Institutionalized – authorities accept the movement • Influences whether movement peaceful or violent • Other factors • Friendship • Race-ethnicity • Size of town

23. A SHORT Time to Ponder • How would you react if your authorities approved of a violent movement? • Would you be willing to join a movement if your friends or family joined?

24. Why People Join Social Movements • William Kornhauser • Mass society theory (an explanation for why people participate in a social movement based on the assumption that the movement offers them a sense of belonging) • Mass society (industrialized, highly bureaucratized, impersonal society) • Alexis de Tocqueville • Relative Deprivation theory (in this context, the belief that people join social movements based on their evaluations of what they think they should have compared with what others have) • James Jasper and Dorothy Nelkin • Moral issues and ideological commitment • Agent provocateur (someone who joins a group in order to spy on it an to sabotage it by provoking its members to commit extreme acts) • People most commonly join a social movement because they have friends and acquaintances already in it.

25. Success and Failure of Social Movements • Stages of Social Movements • Initial unrest and agitation • Resource mobilization • Organization • Institutionalization • Organizational decline / possible resurgence • A rocky road to success • Five stages do not work unless the movement is very broad

26. A SHORT Time to Ponder • What changes could be made to make the stages work? • What movement would you think would be successful in using these steps? • When has a social movement been successful? How were they successful?