1. UNIT 8: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE Collective Behavior

2. Think About This… You are sitting in a movie theater watching a film, and the film breaks. How does the audience respond? Why do you think the audience would respond that way? If you saw a person being attacked at the State Fair with hundreds of people around would you help?

3. Collective Behavior Social behavior is patterned and predictable Collective Behavior: Relatively spontaneous social behavior that occurs when people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations Social scientists have generally found collective behavior to be difficult to study because:  Range of material covered is enormous  It is relatively short-lived, spontaneous, and emotional  It usually involves large numbers of people who do not know one another

4. Characteristics of Collectivities Collectivity: A gathering of people who have limited interaction with one another and do not share clearly defined, conventional norms or a sense of group unity Factors that distinguish collectivities from social groups 1. Limited interaction  Interaction among members of collectivities is limited and sometimes nonexistent 2. Unclear norms  In collectivities, norms for behavior are either unclear or unconventional 3. Limited unity  Members of collectivities seldom share a sense of group unity

5. Types of Collective Behavior Crowd: Temporary gathering of people who are in close enough proximity to interact  Herbert Blumer separates crowds into 4 classifications 1. Casual Crowd = Least organized, most temporary, people interact little if at all Ex: People waiting in line to buy movie tickets; people gathered at a beach 2. Conventional Crowd = More structured; people may not interact with one another very much, but they act according to established rules of behavior and usually gather for a common purpose Ex: Funeral, public lecture, baseball game 3. Expressive Crowd = Has no goal or purpose, forms around emotionally charged activities; laughing, shouting, crying, dancing and other behaviors that are common in this crowd are inappropriate in many other social situations Ex: Rock concert 4. Acting Crowd = Violent crowd; Emotions are intense and usually hostile and destructive and usually focus on a particular target; often formed by a dramatic event; results in violations of established norms Ex: Opposing fans fighting at a sporting event

6. Types of Collective Behavior Mob: An emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific destructive or violent goal  Type of acting crowd  Usually has leaders who urge the group toward the common action and who enforce conformity  Although they are usually unstable and limited in duration, their actions pose a threat to social order and challenge authority  Ex: Lynch mobs Riot: A collection of people who erupt into generalized destructive behavior, the result of which is social disorder  Type of acting crowd  Less unified and less focused than mobs  People who participate typically lack access to power and vent their frustrations through destructive actions  Often begin when long-standing tensions are triggered by a single event  Ex: L.A. riots after Rodney King incident (1992)

7. Types of Collective Behavior Panic: A spontaneous and uncoordinated group action to escape some perceived threat  Generally occur when people believe that their means of escape are limited or soon to be closed off and that fear often results in faulty communication about the threat, which fuels the fear and keeps people from forming logical escape plans  Most likely to occur in situations that are outside the realm of everyday experience (fires, floods, earthquakes, etc)  Moral Panic: Occurs when people become fearful about behavior that appears to threaten society’s core values

8. Types of Collective Behavior Mass Hysteria: An unfounded anxiety shared by people who can be scattered over a wide geographic area  Anxiety involves irrational beliefs and behaviors that spread among the population, sometimes unwittingly fueled by the media  Usually short-lived, vanishing as people come to realize that their anxieties have no basis in fact  Ex: Salem Witch Trials and Executions

9. Types of Collective Behaviors Fashions: Refer to enthusiastic attachments among large numbers of people for particular styles of appearance or behavior.  Most related to clothing, but any cultural artifact that gains widespread acceptance can be a fashion  Short-lived and subject to continual change  Prominent in industrialized societies for 2 reasons  Change is valued and associated with progress in such societies  Industrialized societies typically emphasize social mobility

10. Types of Collective Behavior Fads: An unconventional object, action, or idea that a large number of people are attached to for a very short period of time  Differ from fashions in that they are less predictable and less enduring  John Lofland divided fans into 4 groups:  Objects: Hula Hoops, mood rings, Beanie Babies  Activities: Are often bizarre (swallowing live goldfish)  Ideas: Attempting to see the future through horoscopes  Personalities: Elvis, Michael Jackson, Princess Diana  Appeal primarily to young people

11. What are some current fashions and fads in this school/community?

12. Types of Collective Behavior Rumor: An unverified piece of information that is spread rapidly from one person to another  May be true or false and thrive when large numbers of people lack definite information about a subject of interest to them  Content is likely to change as it travels from person to person  Ex: Telephone game Urban Legend: Stories that teach a lesson and seem realistic but are untrue  Arise and spread because of unclear situations  Seem true because they are usually attributed to specific times and places  Stories quickly spread in order to clarify situations by teaching moral lessons

13. Type of Collective Behavior Public Opinion: Collection of differing attitudes that members of a public have about a particular issue  Subject to rapid change because members of a public very often change their views on issues  Has an important place in American society that politicians, interest groups, and businesses spend billions of dollars each year to influence it  Propaganda: An organized and deliberate attempt to shape public opinion The most effective way to influence what people think There are 7 techniques: testimonials, transfer, bandwagon, name calling, plain-folks appeal, glittering generalities, and card stacking

14. Explaining Collective Behavior Contagion Theory: (Gustave LeBon) The hypnotic power of a crowd encourages people to give up their individuality to the stronger pull of the group.  Individuals become anonymous  The crowd becomes a single organism operating under one collective mind  3 factors give crowds power over individual  Because of the large numbers in a crowd, individuals gain an anonymity that makes them feel unconquerable  Spread of emotion is so rapid and contagious that it overtakes the members of a crowd  Members of a crowd rapidly enter a state of suggestibility which allows them to become vulnerable to manipulations of a charismatic leader  Limitations  Studies have shown no individual that a collective mind exists in crowds  Behavior is usually not as uniform as the theory suggests

15. Explaining Collective Behavior Emergent-Norm Theory  The people in a crowd are often faced with a situation in which traditional norms of behavior do not apply.  Gradually, new norms emerge when a leader initiates new behavior.  These new norms provide a common motivation for group action where none existed before  Ex: When a film breaks in the movie theater, one person may start to stomp his/her feet. Even though it does nothing to fix the film, people begin to join and they often feel obliged to conform to the new group norm

16. Explaining Collective Behavior Value-Added Theory: Explains crowd behavior as a process that moves from step to step.  There are 6 basic preconditions for collective behavior  Structural conduciveness = Surrounding social structure that makes it possible for a particular type of collective behavior to occur  Structural strain = Social conditions that put strain on people and thus encourage them to seek some collective means of relief  Growth and spread of generalized belief = Makes the structural strain personally meaningful for people  Precipitating factors = Triggering mechanisms that set off the behavior  Mobilization for action = First 4 preconditions set stage for people to act  Social control = Can be controlled if mechanisms exist to prevent or minimize the situation  The more pre-conditions that are present, the greater the likelihood of a particular type of collective behavior

17. Value-Added Theory Example Structural Conduciveness = In 1991 a bystander videotaped the beating of Rodney King by 4 white L.A. police officers. Those officers faced charges but were acquitted fueling anger Structural Strain = Poverty, overcrowding, and discrimination were present in South Central L.A. during time of trial Growth of Generalized Belief = Many residents of South Central shared strong resentment of the police and hoped they would be found guilty for the beatings and they doubted an all-white jury would return a fair verdict Precipitating Factors = News of the not guilty verdict provided a triggering mechanism Mobilization of Action = When residents realized the community leaders would not change the verdict, many began looting and engaging in random acts of destruction Social Control = When community leaders could not put down the riots, the Governor of California called in the National Guard and the mayor imposed a curfew on the residents. President Bush sent in federal troops which helped to end the riots.

18. Activity In groups create a visual diagram that provides simple graphics illustrating each type of collective behavior described Label and summarize each type of behavior Types of Collective Behavior  Crowds  Mobs  Riots  Panic  Mass Hysteria  Fashions  Fads  Rumors  Urban Legends  Public Opinion