Four's a Crowd, but so is Three

In psychological terms, a crowd is not just a gathering of people, but rather a group of people who are working together for a cause, sacrificing their individual identity and opinions for more basic instincts and sentiments. (LeBon, 2006: 121)

This sounds like a very extreme case, one might think they are always in control of their identity. However, this is not an extreme case, nor is it a "case" at all. It is a constant in our species. Even if we are not forming a mob and setting things on fire, we are still under the constant influence of others.

For example, say you are at a restaurant, eating a burger. Someone behind you says "oh man, these burgers suck!". Even if you were enjoying your burger, you now have a tainted impression of it. Your impression of its taste has been affected by someone else's. I also find that someone's impression of a movie or show has a lot to do with who they watch it with, though technically, this should not affect the quality of the static movie.

This is what could be called thought fields. Like in a crowd, we are affected by the opinions of others, and adopt them as if they were our own. The examples above are on a small scale, involving two to five people, and so the influence is not complete, but it still affected your judgment in some way. Thought fields increase in amplitude depending on the number of people adopting the same attitudes, and when they get large enough, they fully control everyone inside the group, which is now a crowd. This is what LeBon considers "the magnetic influence given out by the crowd". (Lebon, 2006: 124)

Here is a short clip from the upcoming Simpsons Movie. It has a mob coming to kill Homer, and as it continues, we discover that the people in the back don't even know who they are coming to kill. Isn't this behaviour similar to the idea of each person in mob acting as a cell of the body? They've been drawn in to a frenzy, but the actual logical purpose is unclear.



By using the idea of thought fields, we can begin to understand how hypnosis and brainwashing work. To be effective, the hypnotist must have great influence, able to project their opinion on to others. It makes sense then that stereotypical tools like the spinning spiral disc, accompanied with "you are getting very sleepy" could work as described. By doing these procedures, a hypnotist is more likely to access a person's subconscious, where the basis of crowd mentality lies. In short, it gets past the logical part of the mind.

The media uses crowd mentality all the time to manipulate the public. For example, consider an electoral candidate. You will probably find that these people come knocking on your door very early on, and if you are undecided, you will most likely be swayed by the first person to come to your door. This links back to the Adler and Rodman text, that states that we "usually cling to first impressions, even if they're wrong". (Adler, 2006: 37)

Crowd mentality can explain a lot about human behaviour, but we must be careful not to limit it to the typical mob situations. It exists everywhere, from that cool kid in grade school who we tried to replicate the behaviour of, to the French Revolution.

Works Cited:

Adler, Ronald B. and George Rodman. Understanding Human Communication, 9th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

LeBon, Gustav. "General Characteristics of Crowds- Psychological Law of Their Mental Unity". Communications Studies 1A03 Custom Courseware. Ed. Alex Sévigny. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006, 121-125.

The Simpsons Movie, Dir. David Silverman. Perf. Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith. 20th Century Fox, 2007.