PSYC 2310 Lecture Notes - Gustave Le Bon, Stanford Prison Experiment, Social Loafing
2 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
Le bon described three characteristics of crowds: anonymity. People in this collection or in the presence of another, they become anonymous. When people are not known by their name, their social status, etc. there is a diminishment of sense of responsibility: suggestibility. Compares this notion of suggestibility is like a hypnotic stage they are more likely to do what they are told in a crowd, people become a group mind that is very suggestible : contagion. Le bon argues that crowds are negative overall crowd is a source of a power and we can control it. Politicians can control the power of the crowd in terms of their own benefit, or their own goals. Allport was highly critical of le bon and argued: the individual in the crowd behaves just as he would behave alone only more so, individualistic perspective, when you are part of the crowd, that behaviour intensifies. Allport suggested that in corwd, people reveal their true nature.
