The crowd is characterized. Psychology of crowd behavior

We are born and live in society. We strive for our own kind and need to communicate with other people just as we need food, fresh air, a roof over our heads. From the moment we were born, we are surrounded by people and are part of various groups. But there is a kind of community in which a person loses himself and turns from a rational, thinking individual into a part of the elements. This community is a crowd. The most unorganized, spontaneous and dangerous social group.

Most likely, the crowd is the oldest type of collection of people, and the closest analogies to it will be a herd and a flock.

Mass demonstrations of people, which are spontaneous and often destructive, are not uncommon in the history of civilization. "Crucify him!" shouted the crowd at Golgotha. "Burn the witches!" - fanatics raged around the fires of the Inquisition. "Yes, long live the Emperor!" - enthusiastically shouted people, welcoming the new cruel ruler and tyrant. These are quite common phenomena, they are still there, only the external surroundings have changed, but the essence has remained the same.

Also in ancient times methods of controlling this unbridled element were developed, and they were successfully used by political and religious figures. But the study of the crowd as a specific socio-psychological phenomenon began in the 19th century, when humanity in its development came to the realization of the danger of this phenomenon. The book "Psychology of the Masses" by the French sociologist and psychologist Gustave Le Bon not only laid the foundation for the study of spontaneous human communities, but also became the beginning of such a branch of psychological science as social psychology.

Psychological characteristics of the crowd

The crowd refers to spontaneous large groups. Unlike the other two types of such groups - the masses and the public - the crowd is based on. People who are part of this community do not have conscious common goals, but there is something that attracts their attention: information, spectacle, enemy, danger, object of worship.

The high level of emotionality and exaltation characteristic of the crowd leads to two major effects.

Psychic Contagion Phenomenon

This ancient mental mechanism is characteristic of all social animals and even birds. Have you ever seen how instantly and for no apparent reason a flock of sparrows takes off? It worked the effect of mental infection.

In the animal world and in the most ancient communities of human ancestors, mental infection performed a very important function: the unification and joint actions of individuals helped to escape from sudden danger. In primitive societies, as a rule, the collective mind is stronger and more effective than the individual mind. The manifestation of this phenomenon can be expressed by the phrase: "Everyone ran, and I ran."

It would seem that a person has long gained independence and the ability to think and make decisions regardless of society. But in a crowd, under the influence of emotions, he loses this ability. A person is "infected" with other people's feelings and passes them on to others, thereby enhancing the overall exaltation. And the stronger the hurricane of emotions (fear, hatred, delight) rages, the more difficult it is not to fall under their influence. I think everyone saw how football fans rage in the stands, how fans of musical groups rage, how people at a rally or protest rally shout slogans with hatred.

Their behavior seems strange, ridiculous, frightening, if you watch the crowd from a decent distance or on a TV screen. But once in the crowd itself, a person quickly falls under the influence of its emotions and special mood. People are infected not only with feelings, but also with the energy of the mass, they feel the power and permissiveness that overwhelm them and are ready to sweep away all enemies or give their lives for their idols.

Any person in the crowd becomes bolder, more aggressive and reckless, he can do things that he would never have dared to do outside the crowd, violate the norms and prohibitions learned from childhood. I saw young female fans rip off their bras and throw them at their idols on stage. How they tore the T-shirt of one of the singers to shreds. Are they capable of this outside the crowd?

Even worse is the infection with hatred, when people are ready to tear apart anyone who seems to be an enemy to them (or who they point to), and such cases have been repeatedly described. And in a state of panic fear, the crowd sweeps away everything in its path and can trample even children and the elderly.

Loss of rational control

This second effect is related to the first. A powerful surge of emotions, which is supported and fueled by the crowd, causes a blockade of the rational level of consciousness. A person ceases to control his behavior and manage it. There comes what psychologists call an altered state of consciousness or clouding of consciousness. People literally lose their minds, become part of an elemental organism, which is controlled by collective emotions.

In part, this mental phenomenon resembles the state of passion that a person experiences during a strong and sudden emotional shock. But in this case, he, as a rule, saves his life or the life of his loved ones. But the emotional outburst generated by the crowd is not only meaningless, but also very dangerous. After all, the “roof blows” not for one person, but for several hundred.

How a crowd forms

The crowd is considered a spontaneous group, but there is always a reason for its formation, and often people who deliberately gather, "turn on", provoke the crowd. The instigators usually expect to use the energy of this element for their own purposes. Sometimes it works out, but not always. The crowd is easy to create and warm up, but it is very difficult to control this element.

Who is the crowd

This spontaneous group consists of several "layers" of people who differ in their psychological characteristics.

The instigators are the core of the crowd, their actions are often conscious and purposeful.
The next "layer" is the most suggestible people who quickly "turn on" and do not notice how they lose control over their behavior, obeying the mood broadcast by the instigators. “Suggestible” are usually emotional, and often exalted people, it is they who create that emotional atmosphere that embraces everyone who finds themselves in the crowd.
Random and just curious people. Initially, they are neutral and even negative towards the mood of the crowd, but do not notice how they fall under the influence of the phenomenon of mental infection.
"Hooligans" are the most dangerous part of the crowd. These include asocial, aggressive individuals who join the crowd for the sake of "entertainment", the desire to fight with impunity, smash, satisfy their sadistic inclinations. It is their actions and emotions that most often turn a simply emotional mass of people into a brutalized crowd.

There are not always clearly defined instigators in the crowd. Sometimes the role of a unifying factor is played by some event that causes a surge of emotions: the performance of popular singers, the loss (winning) of your team in sports competitions, a natural disaster or a man-made disaster. In this case, overly emotional people with an unbalanced psyche act as the core of the crowd, who do not know how to restrain their emotions and turn on the rest.

Stages of the emergence of the crowd

If the crowd is spontaneous, and the people in it are not connected with each other, then its occurrence always has a reason. It may be some event or a conscious purpose of a group of people, but at the heart of the formation of the crowd is always what attracts the attention of the human mass. The very process of the emergence and development of the crowd is also subject to clear psychological laws and goes through certain stages.

Core formation. This stage can take place in two forms: conscious (the core is those who purposefully gathered a crowd) and spontaneous (emotionally unbalanced people act as the core).
The information stage, which in psychology is called whirling. People who have joined the crowd out of curiosity or under the influence of the "herd feeling" begin to quickly absorb information, fueled by feelings, and at the same time transmit it to others. Information in the crowd is always saturated with emotions, so there is an increase in excitement and readiness for action.
Leap of attention. This stage is characterized by awareness of the object of general attention and often its change. That is, people's attention is redirected. In the case of conscious actions of a group of people, what is beneficial to them, for example, a common enemy, gets into the spotlight.
crowd activation. The growth of emotionality and excitement requires its release, and there comes a moment when the crowd simply cannot restrain itself and begins active actions, often of an extremely aggressive and even wild nature. If the instigators do not organize the activity of the crowd in time, then this element will become uncontrollable for them as well.

These 4 stages are not always clearly defined. A crowd can form and flare up like a stack of dry hay, especially if people have been excited by some events and before the moment of consolidation or they are in danger.

Types of crowds

Attempts to make a comprehensive classification of crowds have been made repeatedly since the work of Le Bon. But so far there is no such classification. The fact is that the same crowd contains many different signs and characteristics. Can be at the same time:

aggressive and fleeing;
conventional (united by common interest) and expressive.

Therefore, there are several classification options for different reasons.

By degree of activity

There are 2 types of crowds on this basis: passive and active.

Passive crowds are different low level emotionality and excitement. Of all the psychological signs, only mass character is inherent in this species, and in the full sense of the word, such gatherings of people are not crowds. These include, for example, people sightseeing, meeting, seeing off and waiting for a train at the station, transport crowds in the subway, etc. But in the event of some emotional event, these crowds quickly cease to be passive.
An active crowd is in a state of emotional arousal, therefore, a readiness for joint action is formed in it.

By the nature of emotionality

The crowd is always full of emotions, but they are of a different nature, which affects the characteristics of the actions of this spontaneous group:

An enthusiastic or ecstatic crowd unites people on the basis of positive emotions that are caused by a common spectacle (concert, festival) or a common action (religious rites and cults, carnivals, etc.).
The panic crowd arises under the influence of a strong feeling of fear, which develops into panic. This emotional state leads to a rapid loss of rational control. Controlling a panicked crowd is almost impossible.
An aggressive crowd is characterized by a high degree of mental stress and negative emotions: hatred, despair, frustration. The emergence of aggression is always associated with some kind of stimulus, for example, hearing, information stuffing, that is, a phenomenon that causes general indignation.

According to the degree of spontaneity

Although the crowd belongs to spontaneous large groups, the degree of this spontaneity can be different.

Organized crowd. This species was described by G. Lebon using the example of mass demonstrations of workers at rallies and strikes. It is distinguished by a purposeful organization and controls, and often even a clear plan of action. It is compiled by the instigators and involved in the implementation of their supporters from among the crowd.
Leading crowd. More often it is formed spontaneously, but thanks to a person or a group of people with leadership abilities, it takes on the signs of an organized one.

There are other grounds on which crowds can be classified, but these are the most basic and generally accepted.

How to manage a crowd

Politicians, religious figures and simply ambitious people often seek to use the crowd for their own purposes. It must be admitted that despite the obvious immorality of such a desire, the presence of a leader in the crowd somewhat reduces its danger.

Managing this element is both simple and difficult at the same time:

On the one hand, the crowd is somewhat similar to a herd and is always ready to follow the leader.
On the other hand, this leader must stand out from the crowd, attract the attention of people, and have bright charisma. And this is not easy to do against the backdrop of raging emotions.

Political technologists and social psychologists know several ways to attract attention in a crowd:

Demonstration of strength and power. Having lost themselves in the crowd, people instinctively look for a strong leader, a leader - someone who can oppose himself to the masses, who will lead him. Given the primitive nature of the community, sometimes it is enough to become taller than the crowd, brighter, louder, that is, more noticeable.
expressiveness of speech. Emotionally saturated and loud appeal to the crowd is also able to attract attention, so the leaders use different methods of amplifying the sound (currently technical).
"Clockwork" character of the performance. The crowd, saturated with emotions, is not ready to listen to lengthy speeches and evaluate objective arguments. The elemental masses are affected by short, repetitive slogans that not only carry information, but form an emotional background. With the help of these slogans, the crowd is first set up in a certain way, and then programmed for specific actions.

It is more difficult to take control of the crowd to a person "from the outside". As already mentioned, people in the crowd lose their own, lose control over themselves, and in order for this not to happen, the individual must have tremendous willpower and ability to emotional pressure.

You can subdue the crowd again through attracting attention. The methods can be different, up to shots in the air, on which people involuntarily turn around. Alas, it happens that the instigators do not shoot into the air if they fail to shake up a too passive crowd. And spilled blood dramatically increases the level of people.

The phenomenon of the crowd has been studied for a long time, but at present social psychologists admit to their insufficient competence. In fact, society, as in the Middle Ages, and in the 21st century does not know reliable means of crowd control. And the point here is not only in the low level of knowledge of the subject, but also in the process of evolution of mass demonstrations.

A crowd is an unstructured, contact, unorganized collection of people, characterized by the absence of a common goal, connected by a similar emotional state and a common object of attention. The crowd is characterized by a high degree of conformity of its constituent individuals, on whom it has a strong psychological influence.

Socio-psychological characteristics of the crowd:

suppression of a sense of responsibility for one's own actions;
an increase in group suggestibility and a decrease in the effectiveness of counter-suggestion mechanisms;
increasing the emotional perception of reality;
the emergence of a sense of power and awareness of anonymity.

The mechanisms of crowd formation are rumors and a circular reaction, which is understood as a growing mutually directed emotional infection. The mechanisms of influence on the crowd are also infection, suggestion, persuasion and imitation. The main role in the development of these mechanisms is played by mass communication, which has the property of psychological impact on the behavior and activities of crowd members, which is deliberately used by the organizers of excesses.

Main means used in crowd formation are:

a word in expressive expression in the form of calls, interjections, etc.;
noise intensity and frequency.

Potential crowds are:

the public is a large short-term formation of people arising on the basis of common interests;
outwardly unorganized contact communities, acting extremely emotionally and unanimously;
large amorphous groups, the members of which, for the most part, do not have direct contacts with each other, but are connected by some common more or less constant interest.

Role structure of the crowd:

organizers of mass excesses are individuals who most often belong to an organization or act on its instructions. They spend preparatory work to create a crowd (they “lose” in advance and plan excesses), a convenient time and reason for creating excesses are chosen;
instigators are persons who claim to win a leading position, who deploy active incitement, direct the actions of participants, distribute roles, spread provocative rumors, etc.;
an instigator is an individual whose task is to provoke, unleash a conflict;
active participants - persons included in the composition, the so-called. "cores" of the crowd, forming its shock group;
conflict personalities - persons who, in an anonymous environment, seek to settle scores with persons in conflict with them, defuse emotional stress, give vent to their unbridled temper, sadistic impulses. Among such personalities there are many psychopathic persons, hooligan elements, drug addicts;
conscientiously mistaken - individuals who are direct participants in excesses, as a result of an erroneous perception of the causes of the current situation, a false understanding of the principle of justice or under the influence of rumors;
emotionally unstable individuals who identify their actions with the general direction of the participants' actions. They are characterized by increased suggestibility, contagion by the general mood, reduced resistance to the influences of other people;
curious - people who observe from the sidelines and do not interfere in the course of events, but by their presence increase the emotional arousal of other participants;
adjoining - persons who become participants in excesses due to fear of physical reprisal, under the influence of threats from the organizers and instigators.

By manageability:

spontaneous - a crowd, in the appearance and formation of which occurs independently, without the participation of specific individuals;
driven - the crowd, which from the very beginning is formed under the influence of a certain individual, her .

By activity level:

a passive (calm) crowd is characterized by a lack of emotional excitement;
an active crowd is characterized by the presence of varying degrees of emotional arousal.

By the nature of people's behavior:
1) a simple (occasional) crowd - a cluster of people formed on the basis of a desire to receive information about an unexpected incident that they witnessed (traffic accident, fire, fight, etc.). Such a crowd is usually formed from people who feel the need for thrills, impressions and unites up to several hundred people. It is not dangerous, but it can create interference and inconvenience. However, in special situations, such a crowd can turn into an active, aggressive and even commit lynching;
2) expressive crowd - is formed from people who jointly express strong (joy, grief, anger, indignation, protest, etc.). Such a crowd may consist of fans of rock musicians, pop stars at their concerts, from among the spectators present at sports competitions, from thrill-seekers arising under the influence of gambling, drugs, participants in festive and funeral processions at the funeral of people who died as a result of accidents, catastrophes, etc. An extreme variety of an expressive crowd is an ecstatic crowd, characterized by a state of general ecstasy based on the effect of infection or under the influence of drugs (discotheques, mass religious processions, etc.);
3) conventional crowd - formed on the basis of interest in some pre-announced mass entertainment, spectacle. The conventional crowd is usually the fans in the stadium, who are not just sports fans, but individuals with feelings of affection for one of the teams. Such a crowd can only temporarily follow the norms of behavior;
4) the acting crowd - performs actions in relation to a specific object. Divided into:

a) the acquisitive crowd - characterized by the unleashing of an unordered direct for the possession of any values. Such a crowd formed in times of total shortages at trade enterprises when selling goods that were in great demand; at the box office selling tickets for stadiums, sports, spectacular performances and means of transport. It can be provoked by the authorities who ignore the vital interests of citizens or encroach on them. The extreme version of the acquisitive crowd are looters who will destroy food warehouses, apartments, rob the living and the dead in places of major disasters, natural disasters, military operations;
fleeing crowd - occurs in a state of panic when escaping from a real or imagined source of danger;
rebel crowd - formed under the influence of unfair actions of the authorities on the basis of general indignation;
aggressive crowd - characterized by the highest degree of emotional arousal, united by blind hatred for a particular object ( statesman, religious or political movement, management structure). causes the greatest harm in those cases when its actions acquire the character of mass riots (group excesses). It is characterized by the presence of illegal actions: beatings, pogroms, arson, etc.

Crowd- this is an unorganized accumulation of people, deprived of a clearly perceived commonality of goals, but interconnected by the similarity of their emotional state and a common object of attention. Infection- the process of transferring an emotional state from one individual to another. In the presence of feedback, infection can grow, acquiring the form of a circular reaction.

There are four main types of crowds:

è random a crowd bound by curiosity about an unexpected incident (traffic accident, fire, etc.);

è involved a crowd bound by an interest in some pre-announced mass entertainment (for example, certain types of sports, etc.);

è expressive a crowd that jointly expresses a general attitude towards an event (joy, enthusiasm, indignation, protest, etc.). Its extreme form is represented by an ecstatic crowd reaching a state of general ecstasy (mass religious rituals, carnivals, rock music concerts and

è operating t Olpa, which includes the following subspecies:

- aggressive a crowd united by blind hatred for some object (lynching, beating of religious, political opponents etc.);

- panicky a crowd spontaneously escaping from a real or imagined source of danger;

- possessive a crowd entering into an unordered conflict for the possession of any valuables (money, places in transport, etc.);

- rebel a crowd in which people are bound by a common just indignation at the actions of the authorities, it often constitutes an attribute of revolutionary upheavals, and the timely introduction of an organizing principle into it can elevate it to a conscious act of political struggle.

The absence of clear goals, structures determine the transformation from one species (subspecies) to another. Such transformations occur spontaneously, however, knowledge of their typical patterns and mechanisms makes it possible to manipulate the behavior of the crowd for adventurous purposes (which is typical for reactionary, political and religious regimes, often deliberately provoking pogroms, lynching, etc.) or to prevent and stop its especially dangerous actions. .

The crowd is characterized by the following:

1. Decrease in the intellectual and increase in the emotional beginning.

2. An increase in suggestibility and a decrease in the ability for individual thinking (Hitler noted this with an aphorism: "Lock your heart, and give me the key").

3. The crowd needs a leader or an object of hatred. She will gladly obey or smash. The crowd is capable of both terrible cruelty and self-sacrifice, including in relation to the leader himself,

4. The crowd quickly fizzles out, having achieved something. Divided into groups, people quickly come to their senses and change their behavior. In the behavior of the street crowd, such elements as the first stone in the window and the first blood are very important. These steps can lead the crowd to a fundamentally different level of danger, where collective irresponsibility turns each member of the crowd into a criminal. In order not to become one, you must immediately leave the crowd.

3. Panic. Panic can be classified:

By scale distinguish between individual, group and mass panic. In the case of group and mass panic, the number of people covered by it is different: group - from two or three to tens and hundreds of people (if they are scattered), and mass - thousands or much more people.

By depth of coverage you can talk about mild, medium panic and panic at the level of complete insanity. Light panic can be experienced when transport is delayed, in a hurry, a sudden, but not very strong signal. At the same time, a person almost retains self-control, critical perception of reality. Average panic is characterized by a deformation of conscious assessments of what is happening, a decrease in criticality, an increase in fear, and susceptibility to external influences. A typical example of medium panic is the buying up of goods in stores when fair or fictitious rumors circulate about price increases, the disappearance of goods from sale, etc. Complete panic - a panic with a blackout of consciousness, affective, characterized by complete insanity - occurs with great, mortal danger ( explicit or imaginary). In this state, a person completely loses conscious control of his behavior: he can run anywhere (sometimes right into the hotbed of danger), rush around pointlessly, and perform actions that are not critically evaluated, irrational and unethical.

By duration panic can be short-term (seconds and several minutes), rather long-term (tens of minutes, hours), prolonged (several days, weeks). Short-term panic is, for example, a panic in a bus that has lost control, etc. There is a rather long-term panic during earthquakes, short and not very strong. prolonged panic- this is a panic during long-term military operations.

By consequences panic, distinguish the following types: panic without any material and mental consequences; panic, accompanied by destruction, physical and mental trauma, disability for a short time; panic causing loss of life, significant material destruction, nervous diseases, breakdowns, disability.

There are two main points that define the occurrence of panic: First associated mainly with the sudden appearance of a threat for life, health, safety, for example, in case of fire, explosion, accident, etc. Second associated with the accumulation of mental stress and the triggering of a certain mental catalyst. Prolonged experiences, fears, accumulation of anxiety, uncertainty of the situation, perceived dangers, adversity - all these are reasons for the onset of panic, and anything can be a catalyst in this case. The possibility of panic is difficult to predict. But we can talk about an increase in the likelihood of panic.

How to stop the crowd? All of the above indicates that only the strongest emotional brake or miracle can stop the crowd. It is a miracle that cases can be considered when a strong, strong-willed person, who enjoys the confidence of the audience, managed to prevent a dramatic development of events. Other means are categorical commands, ardent persuasion and even the threat of execution of alarmists. Many special memos strongly recommend the physical suppression of the instigator of panic, because it is immeasurably easier to stop the beginning psychological fire (as, indeed, any other), whose then to stop the crowd that has set in motion. To do this, of course, is not easy.

Crowd

An accumulation of people deprived of a clearly perceived commonality of goals and organization, but interconnected by a similarity of emotional state and a common center of attention. The main mechanisms for the formation of T. and the development of its specific qualities are considered circular (increasing mutually directed emotional), as well as. There are four main types of T.:

1) occasional T., bound by curiosity about an unexpected incident (traffic accident, etc.);

2) conventional t., bound by an interest in some pre-announced mass entertainment (for example, certain types of sports, etc.) and ready, often only temporarily, to follow more or less diffuse norms of behavior;

3) expressive T., jointly expressing a general attitude to an event (joy, enthusiasm, indignation, protest, etc.), its extreme form is represented by ecstatic T., which, as a result of mutual rhythmically growing infection, reaches a state of general ecstasy (as in some ry mass religious rituals, carnivals, rock music concerts, etc.);

4) acting T., which, in turn, includes the following subspecies: a) aggressive T. (see), united by blind hatred for a certain object (lynching, beating of religious, political opponents, etc.);

b) panicked T., spontaneously escaping from a real or imaginary source of danger (see): c) acquisitive T., entering into disordered direct for the possession of any values \u200b\u200b(money, places in outgoing transport, etc.); d) insurrectionary politics, in which people are bound by a common, just indignation at the actions of the authorities, it often constitutes an attribute of revolutionary upheavals, and the timely introduction of an organizing principle into it can elevate a spontaneous mass uprising to a conscious act of political struggle. The absence of clear goals, the absence or diffuseness of the structure give rise to the most important property of T. - its easy convertibility from one species (subspecies) to another. Such transformations often occur spontaneously, however, knowledge of their typical patterns and mechanisms makes it possible to deliberately manipulate the behavior of T. for adventurous purposes, and on the other hand, to consciously prevent and stop her especially dangerous actions.

Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: PHOENIX. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .

Crowd

A structureless accumulation of people, deprived of a clearly perceived commonality of goals, but mutually connected by the similarity of their emotional state and a common object of attention. The main mechanisms for the formation of the crowd and the development of its specific qualities are the circular reaction (growing mutually directed emotional infection), as well as rumors.

There are four main types;

1 ) an occasional crowd - bound by curiosity for an unexpected incident (traffic accident, etc.);

2 ) the crowd is a conventional crowd - bound by an interest in some pre-announced mass entertainment (sports, etc.) and ready, often only temporarily, to follow fairly diffuse norms of behavior;

3 ) expressive crowd - jointly expressing a general attitude to a certain event (joy, enthusiasm, indignation, protest, etc.); its extreme form is an ecstatic crowd, reaching a state of general ecstasy from mutual, rhythmically growing infection - as at some mass religious rituals, carnivals, rock music concerts, etc.;

4 ) crowd acting - contains subspecies:

a) an aggressive crowd - united by blind hatred for a certain object (lynching, beating of religious, political opponents, etc.);

With ) the crowd is acquisitive - entering into an unordered direct conflict for the possession of certain values \u200b\u200b(money, places in outgoing transport, etc.);

d ) a rebel crowd - where people are connected by a common just indignation at the actions of the authorities; it often forms the basis of revolutionary upheavals, and the timely introduction of an organizing principle into it is capable of elevating spontaneous mass action to a conscious action of political struggle.

The absence of clear goals, the absence or diffuseness of the structure give rise to practically the most important property of the crowd - its easy convertibility from one species (subspecies) to another. Such transformations are often spontaneous, but knowledge of their laws and mechanisms allows one to deliberately manipulate the behavior of the crowd for adventurous purposes, or to consciously prevent and stop its dangerous actions.

Dictionary of practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998 .

Crowd

CROWD (With. 593)

The first capital works, which can be called socio-psychological, appeared at the turn of the 20th - 20th centuries. First of all, they should include the work of the French psychologist, sociologist and historian Gustave Lebon "Psychology of the Crowd" (1895; in 1898 translated into Russian under the title "Psychology of Peoples and Masses", new edition - St. Petersburg, 1995), and also the works of his compatriot Gabriel Tarde, devoted to the psychology of social relations. To this day, these books are read with constant interest, which cannot be said about the cumbersome "Psychology of Peoples" by Wilhelm Wundt. In these books, as well as in Social psychology» W. McDougall (which is recognized by many as the first proper socio-psychological work), ideas were developed concerning the psychology of large groups - “peoples and masses”. In socio-psychological research, this problem subsequently receded into the background, although remarkable works on the psychology of large groups appeared later. The "Psychology of the Masses and Fascism" by W. Reich (1933; Russian translation - 1997), as well as "The Age of Crowds" by S. Moskovichi (1981; Russian translation - 1996) can be considered as brilliant examples. to the performances of Lebon and Tarde. Moscovici concretizes the psychology of the masses in a whole system of ideas, among which the following are especially significant: Psychologically, a crowd is not a cluster of people in one place, but a human aggregate that has a mental community.

1. The individual exists consciously, and the mass, the crowd - unconsciously, since consciousness is individual, and the unconscious is collective.

2. Crowds are conservative despite their revolutionary mode of action. They end up restoring what they first overthrew, because for them, as for all those in a state of hypnosis, the past is much more significant than the present.

3. The masses, the crowds need the support of the leader, who captivates them with his hypnotizing authority, and not with the arguments of reason and not with submission to force.

4. Propaganda (or) have an irrational basis. This overcomes the obstacles that stand in the way of action. Since in most cases our actions are the result of beliefs, a critical mind, lack of conviction and passion interfere with actions. Such interference can be eliminated by hypnotic, propagandistic suggestion, and therefore propaganda addressed to the masses must use an energetic and figurative language of allegories with simple and imperative formulations.

5. In order to control the masses (party, class, nation, etc.), politics must be based on some higher idea (revolution, Motherland, etc.), which is introduced and nurtured in the minds of people. As a result of such suggestion, it turns into collective images and actions.

Summarizing all these important ideas of mass psychology coming from Le Bon, Moscovici emphasizes that they express certain ideas about human nature - hidden while we are alone, and declaring themselves when we are together. In other words, the fundamental fact is this: “Taken individually, each of us is ultimately intelligent; taken together, in a crowd, during a political rally, even in a circle of friends, we are all ready for the latest folly. Moreover, the crowd, the mass is understood as a social animal that has broken the chain, as an indomitable and blind force that is able to overcome any obstacles, move mountains or destroy the creations of centuries. For Moscovici, it is very important that the differences between people are erased in the crowd and people splash out their passions and dreams in often cruel actions - from base to heroic and romantic, from frenzied delight to martyrdom. Such masses play a particularly important role precisely in the 20th century (as a result of industrialization, urbanization, etc.). Therefore, according to Moscovici, the psychology of the masses, along with political economy, is one of the two sciences about man, the ideas of which made up history, since they specifically pointed to the main events of our era - to “massification”, or “massovization”.

Thus, (the crowd) is based primarily on the sharp opposition of the individual outside the crowd to him, who is in the crowd. Only in the second case does collectivity exist (a collective soul, in Le Bon's terminology) or even sociality.

A century ago, in his Psychology of Crowds, Le Bon wrote: "Main feature our era is precisely the replacement of the conscious activity of individuals by the unconscious activity of the crowd.. The latter is almost exclusively controlled by the unconscious, that is, according to Le Bon, its actions are subject to the influence of the spinal cord rather than the brain.

The cited conclusion was made even before the emergence and development of Freud's psychoanalysis, which revealed the enormous role of the unconscious in the life of any "separately taken" human individual, and also in the life of society, civilization, crowds, etc. This means that, according to the general criterion of the unconscious, it is hardly possible to oppose each other the individual and the crowd. The same difficulty persists when such an opposition is carried out according to the criterion of sociality (if the latter is attributed only to the crowd, and not to an individual human individual).

However, it must be taken into account that in the psychology of the masses the crowd is understood very broadly. This is not only a spontaneous, unorganized accumulation of people, but also a structured, more or less organized association of individuals. For example, Le Bon has already proposed the following classification of crowds, the starting point of which is a "simple gathering" of people. First of all, it's a crowd heterogeneous: a) anonymous (street, etc.); b) non-anonymous (trial by jury, parliamentary meetings, etc.). And secondly, the crowd uniform: a) sects (political, religious, etc.); b) castes (military, workers, clergy, etc.); c) classes (bourgeoisie, peasantry, etc.). And according to Tarde, in addition to crowds of anarchic, amorphous, natural, etc., there are also organized, disciplined, artificial crowds, for example, political parties, state structures, organizations such as the church, the army, etc.). It was the artificial crowds that subsequently attracted the greatest attention of Z. Freud.

Analyzing these and other "transformed" forms of the crowd in depth, Muscovites, following Tarde, emphasize one more and, perhaps, the most significant transformation of the crowd ... into the public. If initially a crowd is an accumulation of people in one closed space at the same time, then the public is a scattered crowd. Thanks to the means of mass communication, there is no longer a need to organize meetings of people who would inform each other. These means penetrate into every house and turn every person into a member of a new mass. Millions of such people are part of a new type of crowd. Staying each at home, newspaper readers, radio listeners, TV viewers, users of electronic networks exist all together as a specific community of people, as a special kind of crowd.

In the field of psychoanalysis, the problems of large groups were elucidated in Freud's later works, primarily in the book Psychology of the Masses and the Analysis of the Human Self. In describing group behavior and, above all, intergroup aggression, Freud borrowed a lot from Le Bon and McDougall. Freely admitting his own gaps in the empirical study of the problem, Freud readily accepted the main ideas of both authors regarding the aggressive aspects of crowd behavior, but gave them a complete psychological, more precisely, psychoanalytic interpretation. In Le Bon's work, Freud was especially impressed by the "brilliantly executed picture" of how, under the influence of the crowd, individuals discover their basic instinctive nature, how unconscious impulses suppressed for the time being are manifested in the crowd, how a thin layer of civilized behavior is torn apart and individuals demonstrate their true, barbaric and primitive beginning . However, starting point(and then the fundamental conclusion) of Freud's analysis interpersonal relationships and psychology of the masses became his position that in the study of various phenomena of culture and the psychology of groups, patterns are not found that differ from those that are revealed in the study of the individual.

Turning to the study of various social communities, Freud specifically identified two of their supporting types: the crowd (an unorganized conglomerate, a gathering of people) and the mass (a crowd organized in a special way, in which there is some commonality of individuals with each other, expressed in their common interest in some object, homogeneous feelings and the ability to influence each other). Freud considered the presence in the community of libidinal attachment to the leader (leader) and the same attachment between the individuals that make it up as an essential distinguishing feature of the mass. At the same time, it was assumed that just such a community is a "psychological mass". Being aware of the existence of various masses and even distinguishing two main types of them: natural masses (self-organizing) and artificial masses (formed and existing with some external violence), Freud at the same time noted the similarity between the mass and the primitive horde and proposed an understanding of the mass as continuation and, in a certain sense, re-creation of the primitive horde.

Exploring the differences and identity of the masses and the horde, he came to the conclusion that conscious individuality is suppressed in them, the thoughts and feelings of people acquire a certain uniformity and are oriented in the same directions, and in general they are dominated by collective motives with a high degree of unconsciousness, impulsiveness and efficiency. Insisting on the existence of a libidinal structure and constitution of the mass, Freud especially noted the role of attachment to the leader, with the disappearance of which the mass disintegrates.

In the psychoanalytic psychology of groups, the foundations of which were laid by Z. Freud himself, certain attention is paid to the role of various negative feelings and factors in the social relations of people. In particular, Freud came to the conclusion that, for example, hatred towards some object can also unite individuals, like positive feelings, and envy can act as a source of ideas of equality and other pseudo-humanistic ideals.

Popular psychological encyclopedia. - M.: Eksmo. S.S. Stepanov. 2005 .

Crowd

In addition to the obvious definition (large gathering of people), the term has a special meaning in the study of youth. Here he refers to a large, loosely organized group that can give the adolescent a sense of identity based on the apereotype of the group before he has developed a sense of his own ideation.

Psychology. AND I. Dictionary-reference book / Per. from English. K. S. Tkachenko. - M.: FAIR-PRESS. Mike Cordwell. 2000 .

Synonyms:

See what "crowd" is in other dictionaries:

Crowd- in China, the Crowd (other Greek ... Wikipedia

crowd- n., f., use. very often Morphology: (no) what? crowds, why? crowd, (see) what? crowd what? crowd, about what? about the crowd; pl. what? crowds, (no) what? crowds, why? crowds, (see) what? crowds, what? crowds about what? about crowds 1. A crowd is a large ... Dictionary of Dmitriev