People tend to behave differently in crowds. Psychological mechanisms such as herding, synchronization, and social facilitation explain this. Anonymity, peer pressure, and the presence of others influence behavior, and understanding these factors can help you make fair and accurate judgments.
There are many horrific incidents in the news these days. Don’t ask, don’t tell, sexual assaults on children, assaults on the elderly on buses, and many other stories make us cringe. These events weigh heavily on our minds and reveal the darker side of society, but when you hear people talking about them after they happen, they often say something about the person inside: “He’s a naturally bad person. But it’s important to remember that a person’s behavior is influenced not only by their internal forces, but also by the circumstances and environment that surround them. Whether other people intend it or not, we are influenced by our surroundings.
In the U.S., you’ll often see people parading through their neighborhoods without their clothes on their last day of class or graduation day, a custom that is sometimes seen in Korea. Of course, it looks crazy from the side, but not all of them are crazy. In a crowd, people do things they wouldn’t normally do, and this phenomenon is called herding behavior. The literal translation of the Korean phrase is “self-collapse,” which means that the self that usually controls you is gone. Normally, I keep myself under control, but in a crowd, this control tends to be loosened. An extreme example of this herding phenomenon can be found in Mann’s 1981 study. He studied the psychology of people watching from the top of a building as they announced their intention to commit suicide. When there are fewer people below, people worry about the people above. This is ethical and common sense. However, when many people are watching, i.e., in a crowd, the results show that the crowd’s attitude changes and the person is encouraged to jump. Herding behavior is also affected by anonymity. The anonymity of the herd is evidenced by the malicious comments about a person’s death. Are all of the people who wrote these comments personally troubled? The anonymity that regulates them has allowed them to let go of their usual self.
In addition, herd psychology often leads people to ignore normal social norms. Why do we do things we wouldn’t normally do when we’re in a crowd? It’s because of the psychological pressure and desire to conform that individuals feel in a group. Individuals feel a strong sense of identity as a member of a group, and as a result, they are more inclined to conform to the group’s behavior. This can be a good thing, but it can also have negative consequences. For example, if violent behavior occurs in a peaceful protest, it may be driven by the psychology of the group, not the individual. Therefore, we need to understand the psychological changes that occur in crowds and recognize how group power works.
Another behavioral pattern that is influenced by our surroundings is herding. It literally means that we follow the people around us. Obeying and following the law, speaking and acting in a civilized manner are examples of conformity. However, slaughtering civilians in a war is also an example of conformity. As you can see, there are both benign and dysfunctional forms of conformity. An extreme example of a dysfunctional group is mass suicide. In the United States, a simple social group founded by Jim Jones turned into a mass suicide in which 918 people committed suicide by overdosing on pills due to their belief in the end of the world, which is being blamed on the phenomenon of “if my neighbor is doing it, I’ll do it too” rather than on religious beliefs. There’s a fun and famous experiment that shows how well humans are able to synchronize: put seven students in a room and ask them to solve a problem. The problem is very simple. You give them three lines, A, B, and C, and ask them to number the longest one. The lengths of the three lines are clearly distinguishable enough that anyone can easily guess them, but six of the seven subjects conspire with the experimenter and all say the same wrong answer. The test is to see how well the one true subject can coordinate with the other six. The question is repeated 12 times, and the results show that a whopping 70 percent of the people who do it at least once agree.
You’ve probably noticed that you’re often more efficient with other people than you are on your own. For example, when timing a cycling race, the latter was better than the former, and when children were asked to play a game of tug-of-war, the latter was better than the former. Even when jogging, people are faster when they have someone sitting on a bench. Collectively, these results show that the mere fact that people are around you has a positive effect on your behavior, a phenomenon known as social facilitation. On the flip side, however, there are times when the presence of other people makes you less efficient than when you’re alone, a phenomenon known as social inhibition. For example, when you’re playing billiards and there are a lot of eyes on you, you may feel more nervous and shaky, and therefore play worse than usual. This phenomenon is especially common among beginners, but it’s also observed among experts who play better when people are around. As a result, we get excited when other people are around and our behavior becomes more dominant than usual. In other words, people who are good at billiards play better in the presence of other people, and people who are bad at billiards play worse. The phenomenon of social facilitation is a good example of how we can influence the behavior of others just by being present, even if unintentionally.
Herding, synchronization, and social facilitation are psychological studies that show that people’s behavior patterns change when they’re in a crowd. The force that a person’s situation exerts on them can actually break their nature. Therefore, when you look at someone’s behavior and evaluate them, it’s important to remember that it’s not just their inner state of mind, but also the situation at the time, and not to rush to judgment. When it comes to understanding human behavior, it is very important to take into account not only the individual’s personality but also environmental factors. This will help us make more fair and accurate judgments.
By understanding these social influences and psychological mechanisms, we can create a better society. Furthermore, based on this understanding, we should analyze the background and causes of others’ actions rather than simply condemning them, and work towards more constructive solutions. After all, a society is the sum of its parts, and the behavior of each individual is deeply connected to the state of that society.
