Chapter 17, Section 3

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Chapter 17, Section 3

• Collective Behavior

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Defining Collective Behavior

• Collective behavior the spontaneous behavior of
  people who are responding to similar stimuli
• A gathering of people who do not normally
  interact and do not necessarily share clearly
  defined norms is called a collectivity
• Sociologists identify several types of collective
  behavior

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Defining Collective Behavior

• Crowds and social movements people are in
  physical contact
• Dispersed collectivity people are widely
  scattered but are in some way following common
  rules or responding to common stimuli

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Rumors, Legends, Fads, and Fashions

• A rumor is a widely circulating story of
  questionable truth
• Rumors are usually spread by people about events
  or other people that are of great interest to
  themselves
• Urban legends are moralistic tales passed along
  by people who swear the stories happened to
  someone they know or to an acquaintance of a
  friend or family member

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Rumors, Legends, Fads, and Fashions

• Urban legends warn us against engaging in risky
  behaviors by pointing out what has supposedly
  happened to others who did what we might be
  tempted to try
• A fad is an unusual behavior pattern that spreads
  rapidly, is embraced, and disappears after a
  short time
• A fashion is a behavior pattern that is widely
  approved but is expected to change periodically

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Rumors, Legends, Fads, and Fashions

• Fashion changes show up most often in items that
  involve personal appearance such as clothing,
  jewelry, and hairstyles
• Other types of fashion changes occur in
• Automobile design
• Home decorating
• Architecture
• Language (slang)

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Mass Hysteria and Panics

• Mass hysteria exists when collective anxiety is
  created by acceptance of one or more false
  beliefs
• A panic occurs when people react to a real threat
  in fearful, anxious, and self-damaging ways
• Usually occur in response to unexpected events

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Crowds

• A crowd is a temporary collection of people who
  share an immediate common interest
• Do not have any predefined ideas about the way
  they should behave
• Do share the feeling that something is about to
  happen or should be made to happen

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Crowds

• Four basic types of crowds
• Casual crowd least organized, least emotional,
  and most temporary type of crowd
• Conventional crowd has a specific purpose and
  follows accepted norms for appropriate behavior
• Expressive crowd have no significant or
  long-term purpose beyond unleashing emotion
• Acting crowd takes some action toward a target

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Crowds

• A mob is an emotionally stimulated, disorderly
  crowd that is ready to use destructiveness and
  violence to achieve a purpose
• Riots involve a much wider range of activities
  than mob action
• Often direct their violence at targets simply
  because they are convenient

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Theories of Crowd Behavior

• Contagion Theory
• Focuses on the spread of emotion in a crowd
• As emotional intensity in the crowd increases,
  people temporarily lose their individuality to
  the will of the crowd
• Blumers version of contagion theory
• Circular reaction 3 stages
• Milling people move around in an aimless and
  random fashion

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Theories of Crowd Behavior

• Collective excitement crowd members become
  impulsive, unstable, and highly responsive to the
  actions and suggestions of others
• Social contagion behavior involves rigid,
  unthinking, and nonrational transmission of mood,
  impulse, or behavior
• Emergent Norm Theory
• Stresses the similarity between daily social
  behavior and crowd behavior
• Even in crowds, norms guide behavior

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Theories of Crowd Behavior

• Convergence Theory
• Crowds are formed by people who deliberately
  congregate with others who they know to be
  like-minded
• The independent variable in crowd behavior is the
  desire of people with a common interest to come
  together

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Assignment

• Section 3 Assessment (p. 589) 1-4