What causes mob mentality

The Psychology of Mob Mentality

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Along with the world, in shock, I watched videos as the extreme right infiltrated our Capitol on Jan. 6. This day will stand in infamy as our most sacrosanct building, the symbol of our democracy, was easily penetrated, defaced and our highest government officials forced to flee for their lives.

There were mobs of people carrying Confederate flags and weapons, breaking windows, climbing into the building, calling for Representative Pelosi and Vice President Pence with the intention of doing them harm. They, thank goodness, were unsuccessful. They gained access to the Senate floor, took photos of confidential and legal government documents, repeating that they loved their country, and that they were stopping corruption.

I watched, astonished, as one member led others in prayer for God to guide them in this righteous quest. Yet, I cannot get the images of rage off their faces, hearing them yell their way into the building, watching in horror as they beat a police officer with an American flag, an assailant claiming, “Death is the only remedy” [1]. Five deaths were reported along with injuries.

This wasn’t the first time in these past four years that there have been protests that turned violent. We’ve already witnessed the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, near the beginning of President Trump’s tenure. Then, more recently, the protests by Black Lives Matter over the senseless killing of George Floyd by the police.

A difference from other protests was that Congress had gathered to legitimize the electoral votes for our next president, and these insurgents’ goal was to install the then president for another four years. Simultaneously, the president had scheduled a rally that day, claiming that Democrats rigged the election, described how corrupt they were, urging his followers: “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” In addition to, “So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue…”[2], and promptly left afterward while others marched towards the Capitol. The rest is history.

What does this have to do with “mob mentality?"

My first thought in viewing the videos was “mob mentality.” I heard this phrase for the first time in my undergraduate class in Western history. Images of unruly crowds near the Bastille during the French Revolution came to mind. This crowd, with no more to lose, resorted to violence that had accumulated over generations of poverty.

“Mob mentality,” as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “a large and disorderly crowd of people, especially one bent on riotous or destructive action.” This definition certainly correlates with what I saw happening at the Capitol.

Causes of Mob Mentality

In order to understand this better, social psychology gives these causes [3]:

Deindividuation—when people are part of a group, they experience a loss of self-awareness.
Identity—when people are part of a group, they can lose their sense of individual identity.
Emotions—being part of a group can lead to heightened emotional states, be that excitement, anger, hostility, etc.
Acceptability—behaviours that are usually seen as unacceptable become acceptable when others in a group are seen carrying them out.
Anonymity—people feel anonymous within a large group, which reduces their sense of responsibility and accountability.
Diffusion of responsibility—being part of a group creates the perception that violent or unacceptable behavior is not a personal responsibility but a group one.
The larger the group or crowd, the more likely there will be deindividuation and diffusion of responsibility.

I might also add that encouragement by a charismatic leader can exacerbate already heightened emotions for a cause, especially if it is a group that believes itself to have been forgotten by society. However, mob mentality can still occur if the group thinks it has nothing else to lose, whether or not the leader is famous.

In Summary

The causes stated above may have played out in the invasion of our Capitol.

I observed a group of mostly white people who felt that they were betrayed by their government, perhaps because of:

The combination of unemployment and scarcity of jobs for which they were able to earn a comparable salary when manufacturers outsourced work to foreign countries in order to pay lower rates. This reality threatened not only their financial survival but also their way of life and their dignity.
The increase of racial and gender diversity in the workplace and at different levels of government that seemed to threaten their status as the most powerful group;
A belief fostered by the government that immigrants were taking their jobs, even though many wouldn’t accept the low pay and/or harsh work conditions; and
Their distrust of the government to provide (even when many received) social services, i.e., Medicaid, food stamps.

My psychological training showed me that one doesn’t get involved until one is personally affected, an underbelly of individualism. We are not socialized to care for the fragile, including our elderly, the poor, the disabled. Modeled via television and social media, we are a consumer society, receiving the message that happiness and status come from external circumstances. It depends upon what neighborhoods we live in, what kinds of cars we drive, where our kids go to school, how much money we earn, and what positions we achieve climbing up the corporate ladder. Where power is equated with money, the more one group has, the more power it holds over another. And, why is that important to understand? Historically, those who have little or no money have nothing else to lose. That is the formula for “mob mentality."

And, that is what I witnessed in the violent crowd on Jan. 6, 2021.

What Is Mob Mentality?

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on October 25, 2021

Mob mentality, herd mentality, pack mentality, groupthink, or crowd psychology — the concept has many names. These all boil down to the same idea: Individuals are influenced by a larger group. Regardless of whether that group includes people in your class, your neighborhood, or an entire nation, you may experience mob mentality.

In the 1950s, researchers conducted a famous conformity experiment that showed how readily people conform or change their behavior to match social norms. It involved:

A single participant was put in a room with seven undercover accomplices.
Asch presented the group with four lines, and the goal was to determine which two lines were the same length.
Even though the answer was obvious, the undercover accomplices purposefully gave an incorrect answer.
The real participant answered last.
The intent of the experiment was to see if the real participant would give a false answer — conforming with the accomplices — even if the correct answer was clear.

‌The results were surprising. About one-third of the real participants answered incorrectly. They conformed to the wrong answer given by the rest of the group.

Why did they do it? When the participants heard the incorrect answer, some started to believe the incorrect answer was actually correct. The participants conformed mainly because they wanted to fit in with the rest of the group and thought the rest of the group was more informed than they were.

Degrees of Mob Mentality

The Asch conformity experiments were artificially created scenarios that you probably won’t encounter in real life. However, you probably have regular chances to get caught up in mob mentality without realizing it.

Everyday mob mentality. Conforming to the group is rarely conscious or dramatic. In your everyday life, consider how often you go to specific places, watch specific shows, or eat certain foods because your friends do. This process makes decision-making easier and keeps you from standing out in a group.

Crowd behavior. Public groups and mobs are the most obvious examples of mob mentality. Whether gathering to grieve, protest, or cheer on a sports team, a crowd can quickly adopt a group mentality.

One of the dangers of mob mentalities is the type of influence it can have. According to research about mob mentality, a small population within the mob makes the informed decisions that other people conform to. The larger the group gets, the fewer informed members there are.

This situation can become dangerous. As a crowd’s perceptions and actions change and conform, an event can become violent. However, with organized leadership, a crowd’s beliefs can be informed and directed in a more appropriate way.

Causes

You might get caught up in mob mentality for a few reasons. If disagreeing with the group poses a risk, you are more likely to stay silent. That risk can be small, like getting dirty looks, or large, like being punished.

You probably won’t conform to a group you have nothing in common with. There are several situations you may find yourself in that may make you more open to mob mentality.

Your group is going through a stressful situation.
Group leadership is intimidating or overbearing.
The group has a tendency to agree on every decision.
There is no predetermined process for decision-making.
The group only interacts with itself.‌

What Are the Signs?

It can be easy to spot mob mentality from an outside perspective. You can look for the following signs:

Optimism disregarding risks (feeling invulnerable)
Frequent rationalization of dissenting opinions
The belief that the group’s moral standards should apply to all people
Self-censorship to maintain the status quo
Belief in the illusion that everyone is on the same page‌

How to Avoid Mob Mentality

Going against mob mentality might feel like going against the grain. If you want to help stop mob mentality, there are tools you can use:

Emphasize including people and their points of view
Identify and analyze unspoken rules or assumptions within your group.
Regularly acknowledge any biases you may have.
Practice decision-making.
Don’t punish people who are honest or disagree.

Features of our mentality: Don't you dare stand out from the crowd! – CS-CS.Net: Electroshaman Laboratory

For all the time that I live realizing myself as an adult person with normal self-esteem (but sometimes I get covered with various garbage), I noticed one interesting feature of our population. We do not like those who think outside the box. Those who have achieved something on their own. Those who are better than others. Those who are not afraid to show themselves without masks, without pretense and tell the truth in person. I was once taught that the truest friends are those who are not afraid to tell you the truth to your face. And so it always has been. Those who wanted to be called my friends, but were afraid to call a spade a spade, did not stay with me for a long time.

The most terrible thing is that the attitude of life “ If you are in the mud, and your friend is clean, mix him with mud so that he is the same as you ” is so deeply sewn into the subconscious of our people that they are in no way aware of it! Our world is a world of envy, constant calculation and comparison of who has more and who has achieved what. But not in order to catch up with them, but in order to spoil them and surreptitiously slander them.

UPDATE. Wow! Here we have a friend on the blog who tried to spam the whole blog for me. So in this post, he spoils in this way - he tries to mix me with dirt. And if I was afraid to lose face (if I was lying and afraid that the lies would come out), then I would take a steam bath. But since I’m not lying and I’m happy, this hurts him even more. Read here: https://cs-cs.net/trolli-i-pridurok-iek.

When people openly envy me (in comments or in soap), they say, of course, you are so cool, you have achieved so much, I always suggest to follow me. I say that I am just an ordinary person. And that EVERYONE can achieve what I have achieved. I tried to write about self-realization in order to show others how it is possible. Now it has grown into a series of "Work for yourself", where I will continue to write about how to stop living from masks and live as you really are.

But there is nothing worse than being jealous behind my back quietly and stealthily undermining my reputation. Now this is happening in the Community, which just illustrates the very mentality that I was talking about. Why did I create a community? Yes, just like that - a sort of idea just flew into my head, because many wrote to me that they want to talk about their deeds and achievements, but there is nowhere to do it. So I made them a platform for self-expression.

But some people seem to be jealous that I have a playground, while others do not. And in the community, the same srachs and quiet jokes began, in which the very thing that is sewn in the subconscious is read between the lines: “Look! Made up some crazy stuff! And people are still reaching out! Gosha! ‘Daddy’ [ yes, that’s what they called it, as the prison godfather ] found some! He created the offspring here and rejoices! In some comments from a couple of people, a hidden banter is read like “Look what garbage he did! Who needs it! This is some kind of nonsense!

During my internal studies, it turned out that once in my childhood my father also envied me, because he did not keep up with my development in the technique, which he showed me. For each of my ideas, he gave out phrases like “Who needs it!”, “He invented some garbage.” In those moments when I was a small child, I really needed his approval and protection. Now I've survived it and I can handle it myself.

So it seems to me that this mentality of ours will never be broken. Because of this, I want to move to another country. And because of this, I am thinking of refusing to travel around our country in terms of master classes and consultations, because it is unbearable. The sun has awakened you. You got up and in a great mood went to the store. You come in and say something like “Good morning! And be so kind as to give me a couple of bunches of bananas!” and you get in response an evil look and twisting your finger at your temple on the topic “Dude, are you not fucked by chance?” just because you stand out with your light from the general crowd.

In our country, among our people, inside of which there is black envy for one's neighbor and alcohol-drenched pain from the thought “I will never be able to do this”, it is impossible to be real yourself. As soon as you open up or show spiritual qualities, they laugh at you, consider you a holy fool or not from this world. When you show kindness, attentiveness, you are considered a weakling or a kind of mattress who will endure everything and on whose kindness you can ride and profit with impunity.

I tested it myself and on this blog. When I started writing about working for people - that we all do everything for people - I meant that we do not live in a vacuum and that our every action affects other people around in one way or another. And that we should make our products (shields, work, creations) in such a way that they are more intelligently sharpened for the people who will use them.

However, a certain percentage of people, including those who were joking, saw in this not a harsh call “Fuck! Do you even think with your head when you do it? Have you ever tried to connect these wires here like this? What? Uncomfortable?! How about the other one? Comfortable, you think? ”, But a weakness. For some reason, everyone decided that if for people, then this is a freebie. Never in all the time that I have been blogging and accepting clients have I had such a flow of freeloaders as this year.

And this is a very bad signal. I don’t want to live among those who drink from grief because no one needs his deeds and spiritual qualities, and at the same time, when he is offered to change something in his life and be needed, he tries to mix you with with your filth out of envy that you could, but he could not. This is the road to nowhere. This is the path towards destroyed factories, abandoned agriculture and drunken tractor drivers. And if you offer help, they will beat your face. Just because you stand out.

I once wrote about the red level of spiritual development, where people try to be like everyone else and kill those who stand out from the “pack”. I am sad for this country, I am sad to realize that no one here seeks to get out of the dirt, out of the dirt on others. Even if these people are offered a way out, they will not go there. Because in the native mud it's good, clear and understandable. And there, ahead - uncertainty and fear.

I don't want to wallow in the mud and be a redneck out of a sense of solidarity. I have always been the one who sets the path for others, who goes his own way, who breaks patterns and has his own opinion. And I want to be able to express it freely and be understood. For this I am running this blog, for this I am not writing scientific articles here, but my personal opinion and I am not afraid to be who I am.

Our mentality constantly forces you to keep your defenses and be alert. Because as soon as you relax, they will immediately start either using you or twisting your finger at your temple. Sometimes it seems to me that if you want to jump on the street in the summer rain, then they will take you to the foolhouse. And if you go to the subway with clear eyes, then you will definitely be asked for a ticket for verification. Because you stand out and are not like everyone else - not gloomy, you do not have a sour expression on your face.

If you suddenly decide to point out to seasoned designers about their mistakes, they will mix you with dirt and say that you are a naive fool boy who does not understand anything about real work (this happened in the community) and will be treated condescendingly, like a child who declares to his parents that he can fly and will fly if he wants. But for some reason, the same seasoned designers, when something goes wrong with them, call me for advice and ask for help! For example, when a house burned down due to a crooked ATS, a person hung with me on the phone for an hour, asking for my opinion. And when I cursed about the designers in public, he also began to mock me publicly.

I am wiser than you think. I see this duplicity as a more global problem than any personal grievances or conflicts of interest. The reason for such duplicity is in our vicious society, in that very subconscious program “Be like everyone else! Don't stand out! If someone stands out - this is the enemy! Our society is so mired in this attitude that a person is allowed to be a real himself (with his thoughts, opinions, and even with his complexes) only in solitary communication or alone with himself. In public, a person is forced to be “like everyone else”, and pour mud on others so that he himself is not poured.

That is, our society has turned into a society of constant war, a wolf society: "Bite the other, otherwise they may bite you yourself." And it's very bad. I already talked about protection; I add: these defenses take up to 90% of the forces and energy that could be put into creativity, into self-realization and just into making money. Do you understand? By defending ourselves, we waste time and waste our lives. You can't live in perpetual fear that someone will be better. It is impossible to calculate how much better someone is than another in order to understand how much dirt he needs to be poured over so that he becomes like everyone else.

I'm starting to get tired of these defenses and of trying to make me as much of an asshole as everyone else. I'm not talking about specific people: the very mentality of our people forces us to build three-meter fences in order to protect ourselves and not show anyone. But is there any point in protecting yourself if you can't express yourself? After all, the greatest happiness in life is to express yourself through your creations and feel that someone needs these creations of yours! Does it make sense to give new food to envious people and those who are afraid to get out of their personal shit? Does it make sense to change something in these people? ..

Crowd mentality (herd behavior): its causes and consequences

The concept of crowd mentality is used to refer to the exceptional behavioral qualities that are found when people are in large groups. It is often used in a negative sense, as the word "crowd" tends to conjure up an image of an unfriendly, disorderly group of people.

Psychologists who study the patterns of behavior of the masses also use such definitions as herd behavior (thinking) or crowd hysteria. The study of such a mentality has a practical purpose. For example, to simulate emergency situations that range from complications during the evacuation process to collective meetings and rallies that can provoke aggression.

Personality is lost in the crowd

There is an opinion that people show hostility during mass unrest, for the reason that personal responsibility decreases.

In the analysis of group behavior, groups of all animals are evaluated, and not just people. Scientists have been analyzing herd behavior for centuries, but it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the accumulated knowledge of group behavior began to be applied to people. In some editions printed in 1910s, the mentality of the crowd is actively discussed, as well as all kinds of methods of controlling social groups.

People and animals are predisposed to do what others do. Individuality dissolves into the crowd when the trigger "can't all these people be wrong" is triggered! Let's say people believe that a full coffee bar is simply obliged to offer excellent food, otherwise it would not be so popular. In most cases, this mental process proceeds naturally or unconsciously, which encourages people to unite in groups based on interests, views, religious or political preferences.

To be like everyone else?

Peer coercion can tempt someone to start smoking.

The phrase "herd mentality" is often used to refer to something that involves more conscious thinking than herd behavior. This type of mindset can be influenced by peer coercion, the need to fit in, to be part of a group. These reasons constantly force people in the group to imitate other members of the team.

Let us suppose that a person may wish to listen to other music in the company of friends than alone, for the reason that others may make unwelcome remarks, criticize his tastes. Another example would be a teenager who drinks alcohol or smokes due to pressure from peers or acquaintances.

Human fears and phobias

People can use the herd mentality to deal with the fear of being left behind.

The two main reasons are considered to be the uncertainty within the group and the dispersal of responsibility for the actions of the crowd. These circumstances sometimes lead the individual to believe that he or she can act in a certain way and not face the consequences that would inevitably occur if he or she acted alone.

Suppose if a person is in a vandalizing group, then he or she may feel less likely to be detected than if he or she were acting on their own. Because it will be problematic to recognize every person involved. The same pattern of behavior applies to power structures that serve the interests of dictatorial regimes. The effect of the crowd and the pseudo "legality" of essentially illegal actions makes them feel that they are permissive. Another common feature is the desire to hide their faces with masks or helmets, which indicates a desire to disappear into the crowd, to remain unrecognized.

Panic promotes herd behavior

Another reason for the mentality of the crowd is the feeling of confusion or even fear that can form in a large group. An example of this can be observed when people in a crowd suddenly rush in one direction.