SOCI 3006

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SOCI 3006 Collective Behaviour May 2007 Lecture
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• 1. Administrative
• password for website is cjrocks

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• 2. Fads
• fads appear quickly, and disappear just as
  quickly
• may be related to physical activities
  (mini-golf, dances)
• fads may re-surface periodically (skateboarding
  roller
• skating/blading, skipping)
• activity fads - centre on leisure-type
  activities like dances,
• physical activities (phone-booth or VW
  stuffing), often
• heavily promoted in mass media
• useful product fads - K-Tel products the
  silver bullet
• gasoline additives backyard vinyl swimming
  pools

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• 2. Fads
• frivolous product fads Pet Rocks plastic
  flamingo lawn
• ornaments
• 3. Crazes
• different than fads, involve the purchase,
  investment in
• something in order to make a profit
• need to be distinguished from legitimate, real
  increase
• in commodities, stocks in the case of crazes,
  speculation
• usually in terms of things that have little or
  no use value
• often the craze commodities become value-less
  overnight
• e.g. the Florida land craze Alaska gold-rush
  buried
• treasure

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• 4. Toy Fads
• the hot Christmas toy
• Tickle-me-Elmo, Beanie Babies, Furby Frenzy,
  X-Box,
• GI Joe, Cabbage Patch Dolls, etc.
• in rush to acquire the toy, collective violence
  can
• erupt, financial speculation, etc.
• note how the toy fad can actually lead to
  increased
• social interaction, milling, communication,
  etc.
• uncertainty often, created by toy
  manufacturer, media as
• a way of boosting sales, selling out product
• urgency there is only a limited number, and a
  limited time
• frame in which to get the product importance
  here of
• media, rumours, creating a sense of panic

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• 4. Toy Fads
• communication of mood and imagery note
  importance
• here of milling behaviour, depictions of this
  in media,
• rumour networks, stores creating circumstances,
  line-ups
• increasing communication of a sense of
  uncertainty,
• urgency
• constraint both normative influence and
  informational
• influence feeling that, maybe the others who
  you see
• doing this know something you dont know
• selective individual suggestibility the
  tendency for
• crowd members to selectively attend to,
  integrate
• information, behaviour that confirms/conforms
  to the
• new emerging norms
• permissiveness the sense that behaviours,
  attitudes
• normally unacceptable are okay in this new
  situation (e.g. pushing, shoving, lying)

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• 4. Toy Fads (contd)
• classification of participants ego-involved
  (parents,
• grandparents, relatives), concerned (those
  attempting
• to get a toy for someone else), insecure
  (getting a toy
• for the sake of saying you got one), spectators
  (shoppers,
• the general public, media), ego-detached
  exploiters
• (counterfeiters, bootleggers, pirates,
  scalpers)
• note to what extent do fads represent a desire
  to possess a
• status position, as defined by social norms (the
  good parent)

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• 5. Millennialism
• what happened to the dire predictions for the
  year 2000?
• the Y2K Apocalypse?
• note that much of the concern began with the
  potential
• inability of older computers to handle the four
  digits
• required to distinguish the year 2000 from the
  number 00
• a potential problem in being able to accurately
  calculate
• dates, billing, many statistics, etc.
  predictions that,
• for example, the Shuttle would be lost in
  space, computer
• networks would grind to halt
• many alarmist writers, commentators predicted
  some sort
• of modern day apocalypse cars would stop
  running,
• infrastructure would crumble, chaos would
  result, ATMs
• would stop working, bank accounts could
  disappear, etc.
• brisk business in Y2K survival guides

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• 5. Millennialism
• unfortunately, cooler, calmer heads and
  scientists were
• dismissed as being head in the sand fools
  and were
• rarely heard from in the press
• differing levels of fear, concern, preparation
  in response
• to Y2K everything from ignoring it, to
  stocking up on
• cash, gas, water to retreating with guns, etc.
  in cabins in the
• remote wilderness to live off the grid until
  the world
• returned to normal
• hardcore believers in the Y2K apocalypse took
  several
• forms the end of the world as we know it
  types, the
• Christian millenarians, the Luddite
  survivalists
• softcore believers no apocalypse, but
  brownouts, blackouts,
• at the extreme but unlikely, meltdown

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• 5. Millennialism
• the cautious and worried panic, get ready just
  in case
• Y2K skeptics minor problems, faith in science
  and
• human ingenuity, well get through this somehow
• the official government position leaning
  toward
• hysteria advising keep on hand a three-day
  supply of
• food and water in their homes but as the
  actual date
• approached, calmer heads prevailed
• The Chain of Beliefs the domino effect civil
  disorder and
• rioting in the streets foreigners and
  terrorism fear itself
• of what was to come would create chaos without
  any
• precipitating event the predominance of rumour
  and the
• role here of the mainstream media

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• 5. Millennialism
• Y2K, the Prophets and the Profits make hay
  while the
• sun shines what role did they play in
  promoting panic
• in a self-fulfilling prophecy?
• note what actually happened on January 1, 2000?
• reactions to the Great Disappointment
• analysis emergent norm theory, value-added
  theory and
• the individualist perspective (also
  sociocybernetic theory)
• the definition of the situation and its
  importance