Alexis Rowland

Film and Culture Tuesday 5:30 - 9:20

April 9, 2015
What is mob mentality?

Mob mentality, also known as herd mentality, describes how people are influenced by
their peers to adopt certain behaviors, follow trends, and/or purchase items. (Wikipedia) This
has also been known as herd behavior, crowd hysteria, crowd psychology, mob
psychology, group think and the group mind by social psychologists. Mob mentality is
usually used in the negative sense, possibly because the term mob conjures up an image of an
aggressive, chaotic group of people.
Typically, when people assemble together over a cause that they are passionate about.
This passion is the perfect breeding ground for a mob because the group of people are usually
emotional and angry; it only takes one act of violence to whip the crowd into a fury. Collective
fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity towards those who are not regarded as
members of the herd. Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Press. Others will follow the initial
rioters lead and begin to destroy property or hurting people. Crowd behavior is also heavily
influenced by the size of the crowd, the bigger the crowd the less responsibility of an individual
and the greater the sense of belonging to the mass. The herd seek out the Great, not for their
sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need. Napoleon
Bonaparte.
A recent study done by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) found that it takes
just five percent of the crowd to influence the herd mentality, the other ninety-five percent
simply follow. In a similar study researchers decided to look at the medial prefrontal cortex of
the brain. This is the part of the brain that is usually associated with a persons sense and
reflection of self. When an individual is being selfish this is the area of the brain that will show
an increase in activity. These researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRIs)
brain scans to assess the behavior of the research participants. During the study, the volunteers

were asked to complete tasks alone and in groups. They found that when done individually
people would have activity in their prefrontal cortex when they saw statements about themselves.
However, in a group setting they had a harder time to distinguish themselves from the group. A
mobs always made up of people, no matter what. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Mob mentality is a branch of social psychology and dates back as far as the 1900s.
Nobember 16, 1885 was where the first debate in mob mentality (a.k.a. crowd psychology) took
place at the first International Congress of Criminal Anthropology in Rome. Though this was
more of a discussion on whether or not someone can be a born criminal it did discuss some
factors that play into criminal behavior and mob mentality was determined to, at times, be a
contributing factor to delinquent behaviors. If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isnt
thinking. George S. Patton Jr.
The University of California was doing a study about mob mentality. In 2012 an article
was published in the Daily Nexus about this. Its contents describe how peoples inhibitions are
lowered or even destroyed by being a part of a group and this causes them to do things that they
would otherwise never do. They lose their individual values and principles and adopt the groups
principles and during a riot that often means causing destruction and avoiding being caught. To
the group it is often seen as a just and righteous act, since the mob assembled after an act of
perceived inequality or unfairness and the communal emotion can make the cause seem even
more important. In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is a
rule. Friedrich Nietzsche.
What does it feel like to be a part of a mob? According to howstuffworks.com, Being in
the midst of a mob can be exciting and powerful, and it can make people feel invisiblethey are

a part of a huge group, and they wont be detected or held responsible for their actions. Some
rioters, when caught and questioned do not even have a clear recollection of their own thoughts.
They became almost primal and removing them from the volatile situation they come to, almost
as though they have been in a trance and swept away entirely by irrational thoughts.
There are many times in our history that we have seen the mob mentality take over.
Sometimes it is something simple, like attending a sporting event and participating in the wave
as it comes around to your seat in the stadium. Other times it becomes much more violent like
the 2011 Stanley Cup championship. Fans of the Vancouver Canucks, filled with disappointment
at having lost to the Boston Bruins left the game to cause widespread destruction. They lit fires,
overturned cars, threw garbage at police, smashed storefronts, and looted businesses. Edward
Gibbon once said, Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow creatures than
from the convulsions of the elements.
Woodstock is known as a place of free for all and is, for the most part, completely lacking
in rules. The people there participate in activities that they probably would not do otherwise. In
contrary to the peace that is Woodstock there are times that started out peacefully and become
much worse. One example of this was The Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857 when a wagon
train of families were passing through Utah on their way to California. The Utah Mormons that
discovered these families felt threatened and attacked dressed as Indians forcing the wagon train
to defend themselves for 5 days. They even went so far as to approach the train with white flags
signaling a truce before being attacked by their protectors, murdered, and buried in shallow
graves. The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with
an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning

blob of conformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and
directed by a tiny few. And we are. David Icke.
One of the most well-known cases of mob mentality is the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. A
few girls started acting weird and the doctor of the witch-phobic town announced that the girls
were possessed, automatically causing the town to panic. This hysteria, lead Salem officials to
start arresting witches based on the accusations of the little girls. The entire town chose to go
along with it and even made sport of the witches destruction. Because they felt entertainment
was a part of this, the town allowed the demise of many innocent people. Once the herd starts
moving in one direction, its very hard to turn it, even slightly. Dan Rather.
Above are listed a lot of negative examples of mob mentality, but it is not always a
negative thing. Herd mentality is in everything from stockmarket to supermarket trends. The
hottest new fashion styles or jumping on the bandwagon of a sports team because they have
made it to the playoffs, are also examples of herd mentality. It seems were always in transition
and that its more about trends than it is about whats meaningful. Marlee Matlin.
One of the newest trends that came around in July of 2014, and caused some crowd
hysteria, was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This came about as a way of fundraising money for
research for the Lou Gehrigs disease charity in addition to just promoting awareness to ALS
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). It was one of the most long-staying trend topics and was
mentioned over 2.5 million times on Twitter between the end of July and middle of August,
according to The New York Times. This trend was to post a video of yourself having a bucket
full of ice water poured over your head OR to donate $100 to the cause. Once you have dumped
the water on yourself you can call out and challenge others to donate or dunk.

There are times when there are groups of people that are together and are not forming a
mob but more of a peaceful thing like civil protest. The most famous example of this would be
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which was one of the largest political rallies for
human rights in United States history. On August 28, 1963 it was here, standing in front of the
Lincoln Memorial, that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic I Have a Dream speech,
wherein he called for an end to racism. Many events previous to this, also forms of civil
disobedience, held the same theme but none of them on a scale this large.