A crowd is an unstructured aggregation of people, devoid of a clearly recognized commonality of goals, but mutually connected by the similarity of their emotional state and a common object of attention.

V. G. Belinsky wrote: “A crowd is a collection of people living according to legend and reasoning according to authority.”

G. Le Bon gave a very figurative definition of the crowd: “The crowd is like leaves lifted by a hurricane and carried in different directions, and then falling to the ground.”

Famous researchers of crowd psychology are Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Gabriel Tarde, Sigmund Freud, Elias Canetti.

Crowd classification

By degree of organization:

spontaneous crowd. It arises spontaneously and is not organized by any individuals. This type includes such crowds as a crowd of people in the subway or in the foyer of a cinema. Although they have gathered for a specific occasion, the crowd as such has no instigators.

Driven crowd- a crowd organized by leaders. Such a crowd has instigators. An interesting type of driven crowd is a flash mob - a crowd of people that suddenly gathers in one place and just as suddenly disappears. Flash mobs are usually organized via the Internet.

Organized crowd. A crowd that has a pronounced organization and orderliness. The concept was introduced by Gustave Le Bon, who considered formations such as a company of soldiers and even a meeting of parliament to be a type of crowd. Le Bon also used the term inspired crowd, emphasizing that the crowd has its own soul. Many researchers do not agree with such an expanded interpretation and believe that only an unorganized mass of people can be called a crowd.

According to the nature of people's behavior:

Occasional crowd- a gathering of curious people (onlookers), for example, a crowd gathered on the occasion of a car accident.

Conventional crowd- a crowd gathered for a predetermined occasion (festival, carnival, etc.)

Expressive crowd- a crowd expressing general emotions (protest, jubilation, etc.).

Ecstatic crowd- a crowd in ecstasy.

Acting crowd- a crowd performing physical actions.

• Aggressive crowd- the mass of people committing destructive actions.

  Panic crowd- a crowd fleeing from someone (something).

  Money-grubbing crowd- a crowd fighting for values.

  Rebel crowd- a crowd opposing the authorities.

Crowd dynamics

If the crowd or its parts move in any way, then the following division can be given:

Sparse crowd- each individual composing it can move relatively freely in any chosen direction.

Petrifying Crowd- an individual’s movement is possible only in a direction common to the entire crowd, and attempts to deviate from it meet with increasing resistance.

Monolithic crowd- any individual independent movement is impossible, the pressure in the crowd exceeds the capabilities of the human body, everyone is concerned only with their own survival, crush.

Psychological characteristics of an individual in a crowd

In a crowd, an individual acquires a number of specific psychological characteristics that may be completely unusual for him if he is in an isolated state. These features have a direct impact on his behavior in the crowd. A person in a crowd is characterized by the following traits. Anonymity. An important feature of an individual’s self-perception in a crowd is the feeling of one’s own anonymity. Lost in the “faceless mass,” acting “like everyone else,” a person ceases to be responsible for his own actions.

Instinctivity. In a crowd, an individual gives himself over to instincts that he never gives free rein to in other situations. Unconsciousness. The conscious personality disappears and dissolves in the crowd. The predominance of the unconscious personality, the same direction of feelings and ideas determined by suggestion, and the desire to immediately transform inspired ideas into action are characteristic of the individual in the crowd. State of unity (association). In a crowd, an individual feels the power of human association, which influences him with its presence. The influence of this force is expressed either in support and strengthening, or in restraining and suppressing individual human behavior. Hypnotic trance state. The individual, having spent some time among the active crowd, falls into a state that resembles the state of a hypnotized subject

Feeling of irresistible force. An individual in a crowd acquires the consciousness of an irresistible force due to sheer numbers.

Infectivity. In a crowd, every action is contagious to such an extent that the individual very easily sacrifices his personal interests to the interests of the crowd. Amorphous. In a crowd, the individual traits of people are completely erased, their originality and personal uniqueness disappear. Irresponsibility. In a crowd, a person completely loses his sense of responsibility, which is almost always a limiting factor for an individual. Social degradation. Becoming a part of the crowd, a person seems to fall several steps lower in his development.

The ability to control a crowd varies significantly depending on who strives to be a leader in it - a demagogue or an intellectual. As they say in the East, the one who wants to control the crowd is trying to ride the tiger. However, managing individuals is much more difficult than managing a crowd.

Crowd control mechanisms

The mechanisms of mass behavior can be used by politicians with any views and any moral level. In such cases, the crowd becomes a toy in the hands of the leader. Typically, people who want to lead a crowd intuitively know how to influence it. They know that in order to convince a crowd, you must first understand what feelings inspire them, pretend to share them, and then conjure up in the crowd’s imagination images that seduce them. The crowd should always present any ideas in solid images, without indicating their origin. A speaker who wants to captivate a crowd must overuse strong expressions. Exaggerating, asserting, repeating and never trying to prove anything by reasoning are the methods of argumentation for the crowd. A statement only has an effect on the crowd when it is repeated many times in the same expressions: in this case, the idea is implanted in the minds so firmly that it is finally perceived as a proven truth, and then crashes into the deepest regions of the unconscious. This technique is also quite successfully used by leaders or leaders of the crowd. A theoretical analysis of the mechanisms of crowd formation can to some extent help administrative authorities control crowd behavior. They are faced with a twofold task: 1) to awaken the crowd’s awareness of their actions, to return to them the lost sense of self-control and responsibility for their behavior; 2) prevent the formation of a crowd or disband an already formed crowd. The following can be considered effective means: - reorienting the attention of individuals who make up the crowd. As soon as the attention of people in a crowd is distributed among several objects, separate groups immediately form, and the crowd, just united by the “image of the enemy” or readiness for joint action, immediately disintegrates. The traits of the personal structure of individuals, suppressed by the influence of the crowd, come to life - each person individually begins to regulate his behavior. The crowd ceases to be active, functioning and gradually disperses; - announcement over the loudspeaker that hidden cameras are filming crowd members; - addressing the crowd with the names of specific surnames, first names, patronymics, the most common in the area; - application of measures to capture and isolate crowd leaders. If, by some accident, the leader disappears and is not immediately replaced by another, the crowd again becomes a simple gathering without any connection or stability. In this case, it is easier to carry out crowd dispersal measures.

In fact, it is very difficult to speak with a voice of reason to a crowd. She perceives only orders and promises.

1. The concept of a crowd. What is a crowd?

The idea of ​​a crowd usually comes from people's personal experiences. Almost everyone has either been in a crowd or seen its behavior from the outside. Sometimes, succumbing to simple human curiosity, people join a group viewing and discussing some event. Growing in numbers, becoming infected with the general mood and interest, people gradually turn into a discordant, disorganized aggregation, or crowd.

A crowd is an unstructured aggregation of people, devoid of a clearly recognized commonality of goals, but mutually connected by the similarity of their emotional state and a common object of attention.

The term “crowd” entered social psychology during the period of powerful revolutionary upsurge of the masses at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. By a crowd, psychologists at that time understood mainly weakly organized actions of workers against the exploiters.

The crowd as a subject of mass forms of non-collective behavior often becomes:

- public, which is understood as a large group of people arising on the basis of common interests, often without any organization, but always in a situation that affects common interests and allows for rational discussion;

- a contact, outwardly disorganized community, acting extremely emotionally and unanimously;

- a collection of individuals who make up a large amorphous group and for the most part do not have direct contacts with each other, but are connected by some common more or less constant interest. These are mass hobbies, mass hysteria, mass migrations, mass patriotic or pseudo-patriotic frenzy.

In mass forms of non-collective behavior, unconscious processes play a large role. Based on emotional arousal, spontaneous actions arise in connection with some impressive events that affect the main values ​​of people during, for example, their struggle for their interests and rights.

Even the main stages of crowd formation have been defined:

Formation of the core of the crowd.

The initial core of the crowd may be formed under the influence of rationalistic considerations and set itself very specific goals. But later the core grows like an avalanche and spontaneously. The crowd grows, absorbing people who, it would seem, had nothing in common with each other before. A crowd is spontaneously formed as a result of some incident that attracts the attention of people and gives rise to interest in them (more precisely, at the very beginning - curiosity). Excited by this event, the individual who has joined those already assembled is ready to lose some of his usual composure and receive stimulating information from the object of interest. A circular reaction begins, encouraging those gathered to express similar emotions and satisfy new emotional needs through psychic interaction.

Circular reaction constitutes the first stage of the formation and functioning of the crowd. The whirling process. The second stage begins simultaneously with the whirling process, during which the senses become even more acute and there is a readiness to respond to information coming from those present. The internal whirling based on the ongoing circular reaction increases. Excitement also increases. People are predisposed not only to joint, but also to immediate action.

The emergence of a new common object of attention. The circling process prepares the third stage of crowd formation. This stage is the emergence of a new common object of attention on which people's impulses, feelings and imagination are focused. If initially the common object of interest was an exciting event that gathered people around it, then at this stage the new object of attention becomes the image created in the process of circling in the conversations of crowd participants. This image is the result of the creativity of the participants themselves. It is shared by all, gives individuals a common orientation and acts as an object of joint behavior. The emergence of such an imaginary object becomes a factor that unites the crowd into a single whole.

Activation of individuals through excitement. The last stage in the formation of a crowd is the activation of individuals through additional stimulation through the excitation of impulses corresponding to an imaginary object. Such (suggestion-based) stimulation most often occurs as a result of the leadership of a leader. It encourages the individuals who make up the crowd to take specific, often aggressive, actions. Among those gathered, instigators usually stand out, who initiate active activity in the crowd and gradually direct its behavior. These may be politically and mentally immature and extremist-minded individuals. Thus, the composition of the crowd is clearly defined.

The core of the crowd, or instigators, are subjects whose task is to form a crowd and use its destructive energy for their intended purposes. It is these people who master the psychology of the crowd or the secret of crowd control.

Crowd participants are subjects who joined it as a result of identifying their value orientations with the direction of the crowd’s actions. They are not instigators, but they find themselves in the sphere of influence of the crowd and actively participate in its actions. Of particular danger are aggressive individuals who join the crowd solely because of the opportunity to release their neurotic, often sadistic, inclinations.

Among the crowd members are also those who are conscientiously mistaken. These subjects join the crowd due to an erroneous perception of the situation; they are driven, for example, by a falsely understood principle of justice.

Common people join the crowd. They don't show much activity. They are attracted to excess as an exciting spectacle that diversifies their boring, dull existence.

Highly suggestible people who succumb to the general infectious mood find a place in the crowd. Without resistance, they surrender to the power of natural phenomena.

Participants in the crowd also include simply curious people, watching from the sidelines. They do not interfere in the course of events, but their presence increases the mass character and enhances the influence of the element of the crowd on the behavior of its participants.

2. Crowd classification

Like any other social phenomenon, a crowd can be classified on various grounds. If we take such a feature as controllability as the basis for the classification (this is one important secret of crowd control), then we can distinguish the following types of crowds.

Spontaneous crowd. It is formed and manifested without any organizing principle on the part of a specific individual.

Driven crowd. It is formed and manifested under the influence, influence from the very beginning or subsequently of a specific individual who is its leader in a given crowd.

Organized crowd. This variety is introduced by G. Le Bon, considering as a crowd both a collection of individuals who have embarked on the path of organization and an organized crowd. We can say that he sometimes does not make a difference between an organized and an unorganized crowd. Although it is difficult to agree with this approach. If any community of people is organized, therefore, it has structures of management and subordination. This is no longer a crowd, but a formation. Even a squad of soldiers, as long as it has a commander, is no longer a crowd.

If we take the behavior of people in it as a basis for classifying a crowd, we can distinguish several types and subtypes.

Occasional crowd. Formed on the basis of curiosity about an unexpected incident (road accident, fire, fight, etc.).

Conventional crowd. Formed on the basis of interest in any pre-announced mass entertainment, spectacle or other socially significant specific occasion. I am only willing to temporarily follow rather diffuse norms of behavior.

Expressive crowd. It is forming - just like a conventional crowd. It jointly expresses the general attitude towards any event (joy, enthusiasm, indignation, protest, etc.)

Ecstatic crowd. Represents an extreme form of expressive crowd. It is characterized by a state of general ecstasy based on mutual rhythmically increasing infection (mass religious rituals, carnivals, rock concerts, etc.).

Active crowd. It is formed - just like the conventional one; carries out actions regarding a specific object. The current crowd includes the following subspecies.

1. Aggressive crowd. United by blind hatred of a specific object (any religious or political movement, structure). Usually accompanied by beatings, pogroms, arson, etc.

2. Panic crowd. Spontaneously fleeing from a real or imaginary source of danger.

3. The money-grubbing crowd. Enters into a disorderly direct conflict for the possession of any values. It is provoked by authorities who ignore the vital interests of citizens or encroach on them (the storming of places in departing transport, the frantic grabbing of products in trade enterprises, the destruction of food warehouses, the siege of financial (for example, banking) institutions, in small quantities it manifests itself in places of major disasters with significant human casualties victims, etc.).

4. Rebel crowd. It is formed on the basis of general fair indignation at the actions of the authorities. The timely introduction of an organizing principle into it can elevate a spontaneous mass action to a conscious act of political struggle.

3. Psychological properties of the crowd

Social psychologists note a number of psychological characteristics of the crowd.

Failure to be aware. Important psychological characteristics of the crowd are its unconsciousness, instinctiveness and impulsiveness. If even one person is rather weakly amenable to the messages of reason, and therefore does most of his actions in life thanks to emotional, sometimes completely blind, impulses, then the human crowd lives exclusively by feeling, logic is contrary to it. An uncontrollable herd instinct comes into play, especially when the situation is extreme, when there is no leader and no one shouts restraining words of command. The heterogeneous in each of the individuals - a particle of the crowd - is buried in the homogeneous, and unconscious qualities take over. General qualities of character, controlled by the unconscious, are united together in a crowd. An isolated individual has the ability to suppress unconscious reflexes, while a crowd does not have this ability.

Features of thinking. The crowd thinks in images, and the image evoked in its imagination, in turn, evokes others that have no logical connection with the first. The crowd does not separate the subjective from the objective. She considers as real images evoked in her mind and often having only a very distant connection with the fact she observes. The crowd, capable of thinking only in images, is receptive only to images.

The crowd does not reason or think. She accepts or rejects ideas entirely. She does not tolerate any disputes or contradictions. The reasoning of the crowd is based on associations, but they are connected to each other only by apparent analogy and consistency. The crowd is capable of perceiving only those ideas that are simplified to the extreme. The judgments of the crowd are always imposed on them and are never the result of full discussion.

Categorical. Without any doubt as to what is truth and what is error, the crowd expresses the same authority in its judgments as intolerance.

Conservatism. Being fundamentally extremely conservative, the crowd has a deep aversion to all innovations and has a boundless reverence for traditions.

Suggestibility. Freud put forward a very productive idea to describe the phenomenon of the crowd. He viewed the crowd as a human mass under hypnosis. The most dangerous and most significant thing in crowd psychology is its susceptibility to suggestion.

Every opinion, idea or belief instilled in the crowd is accepted or rejected entirely and treats them either as absolute truths or as absolute errors.

In all cases, the source of suggestion in the crowd is an illusion born in one individual thanks to more or less vague memories. The evoked idea becomes the nucleus for further crystallization, filling the entire area of ​​the mind and paralyzing all critical faculties.

Infectivity. Psychological contagion contributes to the formation of special properties in the crowd and determines their direction. Man is prone to imitation. Opinions and beliefs are spread to the crowd through contagion.

The emotional-volitional sphere of the crowd is also characterized by numerous psychological features.

Emotionality. In a crowd, there is such a socio-psychological phenomenon as emotional resonance. People involved in excesses are not just next to each other. infect others and become infected themselves from them. The term “resonance” is applied to this phenomenon because crowd participants, when exchanging emotional charges, gradually intensify the general mood to such an extent that an emotional explosion occurs, which is difficult to control by consciousness. The onset of an emotional explosion is facilitated by certain psychological conditions of individual behavior in a crowd.

High sensuality. The feelings and ideas of the individuals who form the whole called the crowd take one and the same direction. A collective soul is born, which, however, is temporary. The crowd knows only simple and extreme feelings.

The various impulses to which the crowd obeys may be, depending on the circumstances (namely, the nature of the excitement), generous or evil, heroic or cowardly, but they are always so strong that no personal interest, not even a sense of self-preservation, can suppress them.

The strength of the crowd's feelings is further increased by the lack of responsibility. Confidence in impunity (the stronger the larger the crowd) and the consciousness of significant (albeit temporary) power make it possible for crowds of people to show such feelings and perform such actions that are simply unthinkable and impossible for an individual.

Whatever the feelings of the crowd, good or bad, their characteristic feature is one-sidedness. The one-sidedness and exaggeration of the feelings of the crowd lead to the fact that it knows neither doubts nor hesitations.

In its eternal struggle against reason, feeling has never been defeated.

Extremism. The forces of the crowd are aimed only at destruction. Instincts of destructive ferocity lie dormant in the depths of the soul of almost every individual. Giving in to these instincts is dangerous for an isolated individual, but being in an irresponsible crowd, where he is guaranteed impunity, he can freely follow the dictates of his instincts. In the crowd, the slightest bickering or contradiction on the part of any speaker immediately provokes furious screams and violent curses. The normal state of a crowd that encounters an obstacle is rage. The crowd never values ​​its life during a riot.

Motivation. Self-interest is very rarely a powerful motive force in a crowd, while in the individual it comes first. Although all the desires of the crowd are very passionate, they still do not last long, and the crowd is just as little capable of showing persistent will as it is of prudence.

Irresponsibility. It often gives rise to incredible cruelty of an aggressive crowd, incited by demagogues and provocateurs. Irresponsibility allows the crowd to trample the weak and bow before the strong.

4. Psychological characteristics of an individual in a crowd

In a crowd, an individual acquires a number of specific psychological characteristics that may be completely unusual for him if he is in an isolated state. These features have a direct impact on his behavior in the crowd.

A person in a crowd is characterized by the following traits.

Anonymity. An important feature of an individual’s self-perception in a crowd is the feeling of one’s own anonymity. Lost in the “faceless mass,” acting “like everyone else,” a person ceases to be responsible for his own actions. Hence the cruelty that usually accompanies the actions of an aggressive crowd. A member of the crowd appears to be anonymous in it. This creates a false sense of independence from the organizational ties by which a person, wherever he is, is included in the work collective, family and other social communities.

Instinctivity. In a crowd, an individual gives himself over to instincts that he never gives free rein to in other situations. This is facilitated by the anonymity and irresponsibility of the individual in the crowd. His ability to rationally process perceived information decreases. The capacity for observation and criticism that exists in isolated individuals disappears completely in a crowd.

Unconsciousness. The conscious personality disappears and dissolves in the crowd. The predominance of the unconscious personality, the same direction of feelings and ideas determined by suggestion, and the desire to immediately transform inspired ideas into action are characteristic of the individual in the crowd.

A state of hypnotic trance. An individual, having spent some time among the active crowd, falls into a state that resembles the state of a hypnotized subject. He is no longer aware of his actions. In him, as in a hypnotized person, some abilities disappear, while others reach an extreme degree of tension. Under the influence of the suggestion acquired in the crowd, the individual performs actions with uncontrollable swiftness, which also increases, since the influence of the suggestion, the same for everyone, is increased by the power of reciprocity.

A feeling of irresistible strength. An individual in a crowd acquires the consciousness of an irresistible force due to sheer numbers. This consciousness allows him to succumb to hidden instincts: in a crowd he is not inclined to curb these instincts precisely because the crowd is anonymous and is not responsible for anything. The sense of responsibility, which usually restrains individuals, completely disappears in the crowd - here the concept of impossibility does not exist.

Infectivity. In a crowd, every action is contagious to such an extent that the individual very easily sacrifices his personal interests to the interests of the crowd. Such behavior is contrary to human nature itself, and therefore a person is capable of it only when he is part of the crowd.

Amorphous. In a crowd, the individual traits of people are completely erased, their originality and personal uniqueness disappear.

Irresponsibility. In a crowd, a person completely loses his sense of responsibility, which is almost always a limiting factor for an individual.

Social degradation. Becoming a part of the crowd, a person seems to fall several steps lower in his development. In an isolated situation - in ordinary life he was most likely a cultured person, but in a crowd - he is a barbarian, i.e. an instinctive creature. In a crowd, an individual exhibits a tendency toward arbitrariness, violence, and ferocity. A person in a crowd also experiences a decrease in intellectual activity.

5. Crowd behavior.

The behavior of the crowd reveals both ideological influences, with the help of which certain actions are prepared, and changes in mental states that occur under the influence of any specific events or information about them. In the actions of the crowd, there is a junction and practical implementation of influences, both ideological and socio-psychological, and their interpenetration into the real behavior of people.

The climate of mass hysteria serves as the background against which the most tragic actions often unfold.

As already mentioned, one type of crowd behavior is panic. Panic is an emotional state that arises as a result of either a lack of information about some frightening or incomprehensible situation, or its excessive excess and manifests itself in impulsive actions.

Factors that can cause panic are varied. Their nature can be physiological, psychological and socio-psychological. There are known cases of panic in everyday life as a consequence of disasters and natural disasters. When people panic, they are driven by unaccountable fear. They lose self-control, solidarity, rush about, and do not see a way out of the situation.

Factors that have a particularly strong influence on crowd behavior are the following.

Superstition is a firmly established false opinion that arises under the influence of fear experienced by a person. However, there may be a superstitious fear, the reasons for which are not realized. Many superstitions involve believing in something. They affect a variety of people, regardless of their level of education and culture. For the most part, superstition is based on fear and it intensifies many times over in a crowd.

Illusion is a type of false knowledge entrenched in public opinion. It may be the result of deception of the sense organ. In this context, we are talking about illusions related to the perception of social reality. Social illusion is a kind of ersatz resemblance to reality, created in a person’s imagination in place of genuine knowledge, which for some reason he does not accept. Ultimately, the basis of illusion is ignorance, which can produce the most unexpected and undesirable effects when manifested in a crowd.

Prejudice is false knowledge that has turned into belief, or more precisely, into prejudice. Prejudice is active, aggressive, assertive, and desperately resists genuine knowledge. This resistance is so blind that the crowd will not accept any argument contrary to prejudice.

6. Leader in the crowd and the secret of crowd control.

Often the behavior of a crowd is determined by the presence or absence of a leader. A leader in a crowd may appear as a result of a spontaneous choice, and often as a self-appointment. A self-proclaimed leader usually adapts to the moods and feelings of the people in the crowd and can relatively easily induce its participants to behave in a certain type.

Any collection of individuals instinctively submits to the authority of the leader. The hero whom the crowd worships is truly a god for them. In the soul of the crowd, it is not the desire for freedom that prevails, but the need for submission. The crowd is so eager to obey that it instinctively submits to the one who declares himself its ruler.

People in a crowd lose their will and instinctively turn to the one who has preserved it. Always ready to rebel against a weak government, the crowd subserviently and bows before the strong government. Left to their own devices, the crowd soon tires of its own riots and instinctively strives for slavery.

The crowd is as intolerant as it is trusting of authority. She respects strength and is little influenced by kindness, which for her only means a kind of weakness. She demands strength and even violence from the hero, she wants to be owned and suppressed. She longs to be afraid of her master. The power of the leaders is very despotic, but it is this despotism that forces the crowd to obey.

In a crowd of people, the leader is often only the leader, but, nevertheless, his role is significant. His will is the core around which opinions crystallize and unite. The role of leaders is mainly to create faith, no matter what kind. This explains their great influence on the crowd.

Most often, the leaders are mentally unbalanced people, half-crazy, on the verge of madness. No matter how absurd the idea they proclaim and defend, and the goal towards which they strive, their convictions cannot be shaken by any arguments of reason. There is one more quality that usually distinguishes the leaders of the crowd: they are not thinkers - they are people of action.

The leader class is divided into two categories:

- people are energetic, with a strong will that appears in them only for a short time;

- people who have a strong and at the same time persistent will (they are much less common).

The secret of crowd control, which determines the influence of a leader on the crowd, is his charm. Charm is a type of dominance of an idea or personality over the mind of an individual. It can consist of opposing feelings, for example, admiration and fear, and can be of two types: acquired and personal. Personal charm is different from artificial or acquired and does not depend on title or power. It is based on personal superiority, on military glory, on religious fear, but not only on this. The nature of charm involves many different factors, but one of the most important has always been and remains success.

Controlling a crowd has a dual nature, because the crowd is almost always the object of control by two forces: on the one hand, it is led by leaders, leaders; on the other hand, the crowd is dealt with by public order forces and administrative authorities.

The ability to control a crowd varies significantly depending on who strives to be a leader in it - a demagogue or an intellectual. As they say in the East, the one who wants to control the crowd is trying to ride the tiger. However, managing individuals is much more difficult than managing a crowd.

The mechanisms of mass behavior can be used by politicians with any views and any moral level. In such cases, the crowd becomes a toy in the hands of the leader. Typically, people who want to lead a crowd intuitively know how to influence it. They know that in order to convince a crowd, you must first understand what feelings inspire them, pretend to share them, and then conjure up in the crowd’s imagination images that seduce them. The crowd should always present any ideas in solid images, without indicating their origin.

A speaker who wants to captivate a crowd must overuse strong expressions. Exaggerating, asserting, repeating and never trying to prove anything by reasoning are the methods of argumentation for the crowd.

A statement only has an effect on the crowd when it is repeated many times in the same expressions: in this case, the idea is implanted in the minds so firmly that it is finally perceived as a proven truth, and then crashes into the deepest regions of the unconscious. This technique is also quite successfully used by leaders or leaders of the crowd.

A theoretical analysis of the mechanisms of crowd formation can to some extent help administrative authorities control crowd behavior. They face a twofold task:

1) awaken the crowd’s awareness of their actions, restore to them the lost sense of self-control and responsibility for their behavior;

2) prevent the formation of a crowd or disband an already formed crowd.

- reorienting the attention of the individuals who make up the crowd. As soon as the attention of people in a crowd is distributed among several objects, separate groups immediately form, and the crowd, just united by the “image of the enemy” or readiness for joint action, immediately disintegrates. The traits of the personal structure of individuals, suppressed by the influence of the crowd, come to life - each person individually begins to regulate his behavior. The crowd ceases to be active, functioning and gradually disperses;

- announcement over the loudspeaker that hidden cameras are filming crowd members;

- addressing crowd members with the names of specific surnames, first names, patronymics, the most common in the area;

— application of measures to capture and isolate crowd leaders. If, by some accident, the leader disappears and is not immediately replaced by another, the crowd again becomes a simple gathering without any connection or stability. In this case, it is easier to carry out crowd dispersal measures.

In fact, it is very difficult to speak with a voice of reason to a crowd. She perceives only orders and promises.

Literature:

1. American sociological thought. - M., 1994.

2. Lebon G. Psychology of peoples and masses. - St. Petersburg, 1996.

3. Mitrokhin S. Treatise on the Crowd // XX Century and the World. - 1990. No. 11.

4. Moscovici S. Century of Crowds. - M., 1996.

5. Criminal crowd. - M., 1998.

6. Psychology of domination and submission: Reader. - Minsk, 1998.

7. Psychology of the masses: Reader. - Samara, 1998.

8. Psychology of crowds. - M., 1998.

9. Rutkevich A.M. Man and crowd // Dialogue. - 1990. - No. 12.

10. Freud 3. “I” and “It”. - Tbilisi, 1991.

Crowd

A collection of people who lack a clearly perceived commonality of goals and organization, but are connected by similarities in their emotional states and a common center of attention. The main mechanisms of 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., associated with curiosity about an unexpected incident (road accident, etc.);

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

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

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

b) panicky T., spontaneously fleeing from a real or imaginary source of danger (see): c) acquisitive T., entering into a disorderly direct relationship for the possession of any valuables (money, seats in departing transport, etc.); d) insurgent T., in which people are united by a common, just indignation at the actions of the authorities, it is often an attribute of revolutionary upheavals, and the timely introduction of an organizing element 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 structure give rise to the practically most important property of T. - its easy convertibility from one type (subspecies) to another. Such transformations often occur spontaneously, however, knowledge of their typical patterns and mechanisms allows one to deliberately manipulate T.’s behavior for opportunistic purposes, and on the other hand, to consciously prevent and stop its particularly dangerous actions.

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

Crowd

An unstructured accumulation of people, devoid of a clearly recognized 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 a crowd and the development of its specific qualities are a circular reaction (emotional contagion growing in both directions), as well as rumors.

There are four main types;

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

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

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

4 ) active crowd - contains subspecies:

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

With ) acquisitive crowd - entering into a disorderly direct conflict for the possession of certain values ​​(money, places in departing transport, etc.);

d ) 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 can elevate a spontaneous mass action to a conscious action of political struggle.

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

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

Crowd

   CROWD (With. 593)

The first major works that can be called socio-psychological appeared at the turn of the 20th - 20th centuries. These primarily include the work of the French psychologist, sociologist and historian Gustave Le Bon “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 Nations” by Wilhelm Wundt. In these books, as well as in “Social Psychology” by W. McDougall (which is considered by many to be the first proper socio-psychological work), ideas were developed regarding the psychology of large groups - “peoples and masses”. In social-psychological research, this issue subsequently receded into the background, although remarkable works on the psychology of large groups appeared later. Brilliant examples can be considered “Psychology of the Masses and Fascism” by V. Reich (1933; Russian translation - 1997), as well as “The Age of Crowds” by S. Moscovici (1981; Russian translation - 1996), which, by the way, is largely based on to the performances of Le Bon 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 an accumulation of people in one place, but a human aggregate with a mental community.

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

2. The crowds are conservative, despite their revolutionary behavior. They end up restoring what they initially overthrew, because for them, as for everyone in a state of hypnosis, the past is much more significant than the present.

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

4. Propaganda (or) has an irrational basis. Thanks to this, obstacles that stand in the way of action are overcome. Since most of our actions are the result of beliefs, a critical mind, lack of conviction and passion hinder action. Such interference can be eliminated by hypnotic, propagandistic suggestion, and therefore propaganda addressed to the masses must use energetic and figurative language of allegory 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 cultivated in the minds of people. As a result of such suggestion, it turns into collective images and actions.

Summarizing all these most 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 gather 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 among friends, we are all ready for the most extreme extravagances.” Moreover, the crowd, the mass, is understood as a social animal that has broken free from its 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 in the crowd the differences between people are erased 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 large role precisely in the 20th century (as a result of industrialization, urbanization, etc.). Therefore, according to Moscovici, mass psychology, 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 - “massification”, or “massification”.

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

A century ago, in his Psychology of Crowds, Le Bon wrote: “The main characteristic feature of our era is precisely the replacement of the conscious activity of individuals with 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 psychoanalysis by S. Freud, who revealed the enormous role of the unconscious in the life of any “individual” human individual, and also in the life of society, civilization, crowd, etc. This means that according to the general criterion of the unconscious, it is hardly possible to contrast the individual and the crowd with each other. The same difficulty remains when such a contrast is carried out according to the criterion of sociality (if the latter is attributed only to the crowd, and not to a single human individual).

It is necessary, however, to take into account that in mass psychology the crowd is understood very broadly. This is not only a spontaneous, unorganized gathering of people, but also a structured, to one degree or another organized association of individuals. For example, Le Bon already proposed the following classification of crowds, the starting point of which is a “simple crowd” of people. First of all, it's a crowd. heterogeneous: a) anonymous (street, etc.); b) non-anonymous (jury trials, parliamentary meetings, etc.). And secondly, the crowd homogeneous: a) sects (political, religious, etc.); b) castes (military, workers, clergy, etc.); c) classes (bourgeoisie, peasantry, etc.). And according to Tarde, in addition to anarchic, amorphous, natural crowds, etc., there are also organized, disciplined, artificial crowds (for example, political parties, government agencies, organizations such as the church, army, etc.). It was artificial crowds that subsequently attracted the greatest attention of Z. Freud.

Deeply analyzing these and other “transformed” forms of the crowd, Oskovichi, following Tarde, especially notes another and, perhaps, the most significant transformation of the crowd... into a public. If initially a crowd is a gathering of people in one enclosed space at the same time, then the public is a scattered crowd. Thanks to mass communication, there is no longer any need to organize meetings of people to inform each other. These means penetrate into every home and transform every person into a member of the new mass. Millions of such people form part of a new type of crowd. While everyone remains at home, newspaper readers, radio listeners, television viewers, and users of electronic networks all exist together as a specific community of people, as a special type of crowd.

In the field of psychoanalysis, the problems of large groups were illuminated in Freud’s later works, primarily in the book “Mass Psychology and 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 willingly accepted the basic ideas of both authors regarding the aggressive aspects of crowd behavior, but gave them a complete psychological, or 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 hitherto suppressed unconscious drives manifest themselves in the crowd, how the thin layer of civilized behavior is torn apart and individuals reveal their true, barbaric and primitive beginning . At the same time, the starting point (and then the fundamental conclusion) of Freud’s analysis of interpersonal relationships and mass psychology was his position that when studying various phenomena of culture and group psychology, no patterns are found that differ from those that are revealed when studying 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 specially organized crowd in which there is some commonality of individuals with each other, expressed in their common interest in a certain object, homogeneous feelings and ability to influence each other). Freud considered an essential distinguishing feature of the masses to be the presence in the community of libidinal attachment to the leader (leader) and the same attachment between the individuals composing it. It was assumed that such a community constitutes a “psychological mass.” Aware of the existence of various masses and even identifying their two main types: natural masses (self-organizing) and artificial masses (formed and existing under some external violence), Freud at the same time noted the similarities between the mass and the primitive horde and proposed an understanding of the mass as continuation and, in a certain sense, recreation 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 homogeneity and are oriented in the same directions, and in general they are dominated by collective impulses 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 psychoanalytic group psychology, the foundations of which were laid by S. Freud himself, some 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 an object can unite individuals just as well as 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

Besides the obvious definition (large crowds of people), the term has special meaning in the study of youth. Here it denotes a large, loosely organized group that can give the teenager a sense of identity based on the apereotype of the group, while he has not yet had time to develop a sense of his own ideological identity.

Psychology. A-Z. Dictionary reference / Transl. from English K. S. Tkachenko. - M.: FAIR PRESS. Mike Cordwell. 2000.

See what a “crowd” is in other dictionaries:

Crowd- in China Crowd (ancient Greek ... Wikipedia

crowd- noun, f., used. 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? in crowds, about what? about crowds 1. A crowd is a large... Dmitriev's Explanatory Dictionary

Social psychology: lecture notes Melnikova Nadezhda Anatolyevna

3. The crowd as a spontaneously organized group

The crowd is one of the large but weakly organized communities.

The element of the crowd is socio-political crises that shake people’s lives, as well as periods of transition from one state of society to another.

There are different definitions of crowd.

What is common is the opposition of the crowd to all stable social communities, the deprivation of the crowd of clear signs and characteristics, which generally makes it difficult to understand it as a social phenomenon.

From a psychological point of view, a crowd is a collection of people who have certain traits that differ from those that characterize the individual individuals who make up this collection (G. Le Bon).

Crowd- an unstructured accumulation of people devoid of a clearly recognized commonality of goals, but connected by similarities in their emotional state and a common object of attention.

The term “crowd” is ambiguous and is used to describe phenomena and processes that are very distant from each other in nature.

The presence of a crowd always focuses on the presence of a certain community; some kind of connection between people, which can be secondary, temporary, or accidental.

Crowd- this is a relatively short-term, weakly organized and structureless accumulation (gathering) of a multitude, interconnected by a common emotional state, a conscious or unconscious goal and possessing a huge (incommensurate with the individual) power of influence on society and its life, capable of instantly disorganizing their behavior and activities.

A crowd, according to G. Tarde, is a pile of heterogeneous elements unfamiliar to each other.

A characteristic feature of a crowd is its sudden organization.

It has no preliminary desire for a common goal, it does not have a collective desire.

Meanwhile, among the variety of her movements, there is some expediency in her actions and aspirations.

The very word “crowd” as a collective name indicates that a mass of individuals is identified with one person.

Among the reasons for the unity of thought observed in the crowd is P. Bordier highlights ability to imitate.

Every person is disposed to imitate, and this ability reaches its maximum in people gathered together.

Many writers have tried to explain this phenomenon by resorting to Joly's moral epidemic hypothesis: “Imitation is a real epidemic, depending on the example, just as the possibility of contracting smallpox depends on the poison by which the latter is spread.”

On this basis, the moral epidemic explained the epidemics of crimes that followed some crime about which much was written in the press.

According to Sergius and G. Tarde, every idea, every mental movement of an individual is nothing more than a reflex to an impulse received from the outside.

Everyone acts and thinks only thanks to some suggestion.

This suggestion can spread either to only one individual, or to several, or even to a large number of individuals; it can spread like a real epidemic.

“Based on the type of dominant emotion and behavioral characteristics, researchers distinguish the following types of crowds.

Random (occasional) crowd arises in connection with some unexpected event.

It is formed by “onlookers,” people who feel the need for new impressions.

The main emotion is people's curiosity.

A random crowd can gather quickly and disperse just as quickly. Usually not numerous.

Conventional crowd- a crowd whose behavior is based on explicit or implied norms and rules of behavior - conventions.

Gathered on the occasion of a pre-announced event, people are usually motivated by a well-directed interest, and they are expected to follow norms of behavior appropriate to the nature of the event.

Expressive crowd is distinguished by its special power of mass manifestation of emotions and feelings.

It is the result of the transformation of a random or conventional crowd, when people, in connection with certain events that they have witnessed, and under the influence of their development, are seized by a general emotional mood, expressed collectively.

An expressive crowd can transform into an extreme form - ecstatic crowd, that is, the type of crowd when the people who form it work themselves into a frenzy in joint prayer, ritual or other actions.

All three types of crowd belong to passive. D. D. Bessonov proposed to consider the crowd as expectant (passive) and active (active).

Active (active) crowd– the most important type of crowd, given the social danger of some of its subtypes.

Considered the most dangerous aggressive crowd- a gathering of people seeking destruction and even murder.

The people who make up an aggressive crowd do not have a rational basis for their actions.

More often it is the result of the transformation of a casual, conventional or expressive crowd.

In a crowd, people descend to a primitive state, which is characterized by irrational behavior, the dominance of unconscious motives, and the subordination of the individual to the collective mind or “racial unconscious.”

The qualities discovered by an individual in a crowd are a manifestation of the unconscious, which contains all human evil” (3. Freud).

Another subspecies of the active crowd is panicky crowd- a crowd of people gripped by a feeling of fear, a desire to avoid some imaginary or real danger.

Panic is a socio-psychological phenomenon of the manifestation of a group affect of fear.

The resulting fear blocks people’s ability to rationally assess the situation that has arisen.

A subspecies of the active crowd is acquisitive crowd- a collection of people who are in direct and disorderly conflict with each other due to the possession of certain values ​​that are not enough to satisfy the needs or desires of all participants in this conflict.

Some crowd phenomenon researchers highlight rebel crowd as an indispensable attribute of all revolutionary events.

The actions of the rebel crowd are specific and aimed at immediately changing the situation, which in some way does not suit its participants.

The question of criminal liability is relatively simple if the perpetrator of the crime is one person.

The question becomes extremely difficult when the perpetrators of the crime are not a few people, but a very large number of them.

Some, following the military law of punishment through the tenth, that is, by punishing several people, successfully, but often without any sense, stop the excitement in the crowd and instill fear in it.

People's judges often leave everyone free, thus acting in the words of Tacitus: “Where there are many guilty, no one should be punished.”

The classical school of criminal law never asked itself whether a crime committed by a crowd should be punished in the same way as the crime of one person.

It was completely enough for her to study crime as a legal substance.

No matter how the criminal acted (alone or under the influence of a crowd), the reason that pushed him to commit a crime was always his free will.

The same punishment was always given for the same offense.

The positive school proved that free will is an illusion of consciousness; she opened up a hitherto unknown world of anthropological, physical and social factors of crime and raised the idea that a crime committed by a crowd should be judged differently from a crime committed by one person, and this is because in the first and second cases the participation , taken by anthropological and social factors, is different.

Pugliese was the first to set out the doctrine of criminal liability for collective crime.

He allows semi-responsibility for all those who committed a crime while carried away by a crowd.

He called collective crime a strange and complex phenomenon when a crowd commits a crime, carried away by the words of a demagogue or irritated by some fact that is or seems to be an injustice or insult to them.

Two types collective crimes: crimes committed as a result of a common natural attraction to them; crimes caused by passions, expressed most clearly in the crimes of the mob.

The first case is similar to a crime committed by a natural criminal, and the second is similar to one committed by an accidental criminal.

The first can always be prevented, the second - never. In the first, the anthropological factor prevails; in the second, the social factor dominates. The first arouses constant and very strong horror against the persons who committed it; the second is only an easy and short-term salvation.

L. Lavergne to explain the crimes of the crowd, he used the assumption of a person’s natural tendency to kill.

The crowd itself is more inclined towards evil than towards good. Heroism and kindness can be qualities of one individual; but they are almost never the distinguishing features of a crowd.