SOCI 3006

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SOCI 3006 Collective Behaviour May 2007 Lecture
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• 1. Administrative
• all material on web

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• 2. Images, Miracles and Apparitions
• a common form of collective behaviour
• generally take place in a public, secular
  setting, despite their
• often religious nature (note Durkheim on
  sacred/profane)
• Images
• belief in the spontaneous appearance of a
  religious
• figure on an everyday object
• e.g. - the face of Jesus on a grilled cheese
  sandwich
• Jesus and other figures observed on walls,
  automobile
• body parts frying pans windows, storage tanks,
  etc.
• all follow a similar pattern some individual
  notices
• the image, interprets it as the likeness of a
  religious
• figure, interprets this as some form of miracle,
  tells
• friends, who may then tell others

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• 2. Images, Miracles and Apparitions (contd)
• Images
• interest/belief in images usually relatively
  short-term
• those who believe in the image accept that it is
  caused
• by a mundane event (rust, stains, lighting,
  etc.) but
• believe that these things have been somehow
• manipulated by a divine force to show the image
• - accessibility by large crowds a key factor
• Miracles
• tangible physical objects that miraculously
  move, or
• cry, drip blood, etc.
• miracles often more denomination-specific, less
• plausible to general public, more likely to
  occur indoors

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• 2. Images, Miracles and Apparitions (contd)
• Miracles
• usually belief/non-belief straightforward
  either the
• statue of the Virgin is bleeding, or it is not,
  or at least
• not real blood
• usually requires predisposition to believe
  (religious)
• Apparitions
• - involve the miraculous appearance of a
  figure religious,
• ghosts, angels, famous people but unlike
  images and
• miracles, the apparition if most often visible
  to only
• one or a handful of people
• - may involve claims from some individuals that
  they are
• able to communicate with the apparition
• - why so many apparitions involve young girls?

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• 2. Images, Miracles and Apparitions (contd)
• The Soybean Savior Jesus on an Oil Tank
• Fostoria, Ohio, 1986
• Locher analyzes incident using Smelsers
  value-added
• theory
• structural conduciveness (religious Christian
• community, rural, image was easily viewed from
  cars,
• August was nice weather in evenings, vacation
  time,
• image appeared just off the most traveled road
  in town)
• - structural strain (high crime rate, hard
  economic times,
• very hot, dry weather)

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• 2. Images, Miracles and Apparitions (contd)
• The Soybean Savior Jesus on an Oil Tank
• generalized belief (devout believers, devout
  skeptics,
• doubting participants, nonbelievers)
• - mobilization of participants (local people
  strongly
• urged others to take a look the media got
  involved
• (August 1986 a slow news time), religious
  leaders
• social control local authorities unable to
  deter
• onlookers, so managed, facilitated orderly
  viewing
• note how important a single individuals
  definition of the
• situation was in creating, shaping events
• what caused this event to end?

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• 2. Images, Miracles and Apparitions (contd)
• Our Lady of Clearwater
• Clearwater, Florida, 1996 2001
• again, use of Smelsers value-added theory
• also, use of Turner and Killians types of crowd
  
• participants (ego-involved, concerned,
  insecure,
• spectators, exploiters)

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• 3. Rumours, Urban Myths and Urban Legends
• a rumour is an unconfirmed statement or fact
  passed through
• informal communication
• often rumours arise in situations of
  anxiety/uncertainty, where
• individuals will seek any sort of information
  to make sense of
• what is happening
• tellers may repeat rumours out of a feeling of
  being in the
• know or feeling powerful status, attention,
  to create excitement
• believers consider the information plausible and
  accept it as
• fact
• rumours often serve to confirm what believers
  already suspect or
• want to believe is true

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• 3. Rumours, Urban Myths and Urban Legends
  (contd)
• urban legends are a form of rumour told as a
  story (the
• bathtub legend, or the Eddie Murphy legend the
  Hippie girl
• and the baby in the oven)
• urban myths are a form of rumour told in regard
  to a specific
• fact (cocaine in Coca Cola tooth in
  Coca-Cola the myth
• of babies sacrificed by Satanic Cults Geraldo
  Rivera)
• the Proctor and Gamble rumour and analysis
  using the
• emergent norm theory

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• 3. Rumours, Urban Myths and Urban Legends
  (contd)
• uncertainty and the rumour public belief
  that something is
• wrong with the country and this Satanism
  promoted by a
• large corporation could be it
• urgency if something not done quickly, the
  devil would take over
• but note as well poor economy at the time
• communication of mood and imagery the circular
  reaction
• among the rumour public the role of the
  church newsletters and
• direct-mail flyers (also, eventually, Am-Way)
• constraint in particular, among religious
  congregations fueled
• by their Ministers

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• 3. Rumours, Urban Myths and Urban Legends
  (contd)
• selective individual suggestibility
  polarization of beliefs,
• leading to spread of acceptance of rumour by
  those already
• selectively likely to accept (religious groups)
• permissiveness free to discuss, share
  concerns, different
• versions, takes on the rumour, openly
• note why do we accept rumours when we
  suspect/know they
• are false?