Preview

Mob Mentality

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1266 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mob Mentality
History tends to repeat itself and while the context may differ, the causative factors are most likely the same. One repetitive action throughout history is religious persecution, two examples include; Nazi Germany and the Salem witch trials. While the groups being persecuted had almost nothing in common the causes of the persecution were very similar: mob mentality. The responsibility is shared and thus responsibility is diluted. Being in a mob alleviates people’s sense of morality because they are followers without conscious choice. There are differing opinions on why people participate in mobs and the basis for what results in unlawful and immoral acts. While some believe that mob mentality occurs because of our intrinsic primal instincts that derive from anger and fear, it is actually an external force of passionate persuasion that results in mob mentality. There are many beliefs about the causes of mob mentality; there are some who support the primal instincts hypothesis of mob mentality. Christyl Rivers, an Ecopsychologist who earned her Masters in Psychology from Pacific Lutheran University, believes that humans adopt some kind of “herd mentality” when in large groups (Rivers). This herd mentality causes people to lose “control of their usual inhibitions”; they do not follow their morals and sometimes act violently (Rivers). This mentality is sometimes seen at “soccer riot[s]” where property is being destroyed and spectators mindlessly join in. However, “herd mentality” does not always have to be violent, it can be defensive (Rivers). Often “defensive or protective circles spontaneously form against an adversary” where everyone in the group is set upon a common goal of protecting something and other thoughts and emotions are cast aside (Rivers). In addition to Christyl Rivers, Dossie Terrell, a state worker for the Social Security Administration and the Federal Child Support Enforcement Program, also believes that primal instincts are the cause


Cited: 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/05-6>. “Solomon Asch experiment (1958) A study of conformity.” Age-of-the-sage.org. N.p., n.d Institute, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. <http://www.hsdinstitute.org/learnmore/library/articles/THE_BEAST.pdf.>
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unit Four Performance Assessment: Conservative Resurgence Into A New Century
    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Unit Four Performance Assessment: Conservative Resurgence Into A New Century

    Do social, political and cultural movements repeat themselves? Can studying the past help us to understand…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mob Mentality Beitler
    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page

    Mob Mentality Beitler

    After reading the mob mentality pieces, I conclude mobs thought it was okay to torture black people whenever they want to. To illustrate, Beitler’s photograph shows, a mob out in the open lynching two black people. Since they are doing the lynchings out in the open, the mob was not afraid of getting caught. Everyone in the picture are in their street clothes, so that could show they were okay with other people seeing they were participating in the lynching. Another idea that supports this conclusion is, in the article How Riots Work, the author points out, “Being part of a group can destroy people’s inhibitions, making them do things they’d never do otherwise ”(Edmonds). That quote shows people think it is okay to do an…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stanley Milgram's Destructive Obedience Study
    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Stanley Milgram's Destructive Obedience Study

    In society, authority and its rules are respected by people in the community through acts of obedience. Authority is not only the government laws, but can also be people with a higher status, such as parents, teachers, or employment managers. As long as people obey those with authoritative power, they will receive rewards, or at least avoid punishment, even when the command requires unjust actions towards another person. For example, Hitler’s propaganda that made the Germans believe that the Jews were the source of their economic problems and scapegoated them in world war two. And years after the Holocaust, some Germans deny their part in the abuse towards the genocide of six million Jews. In other words, people who deny their part in an unjust action place the blame on…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Granovetter's Theory Of Human Thresholds Essay
    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Granovetter's Theory Of Human Thresholds Essay

    It has been thought that those who would commit such horrendous crimes would suffer from some sort of mental illness, however Granovetter’s model proves otherwise. In Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Thresholds of Violence” he uses the story of a young man named John LaDue, who was a quiet and loving kid that one day plotted to set off a bomb at his own high school. “I have good parents. I live in a good town,” says LaDue. He was never diagnosed with any type of mental illness and did not have typical symptoms of a school killer. Granovetter’s theory offers us an explanation as to why such a normal kid would commit to such a terrible act. The theory states that a person who normally wouldn’t do something belligerent, such as a rioter, is more likely to do it because they saw someone do the same thing first. Gladwell uses this theory to convince readers that this is why school shootings have become more common. “A riot was a social process, in which people did things in reaction to and in combination with those around them.” Granovetter claims that this theory could describe many different situations such as strikes, elections, and even leaving a…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Social Psychology of New Square Violence
    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Social Psychology of New Square Violence

    Social psychology examines the interaction of individuals in society. As the famous poet John Donne wrote in 1623, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” (Donne, 1623/2011). The principles of social psychology can be applied to all aspects of human behavior. This paper will utilize these principles to explore a recent act of violence in New Square, New York.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird
    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examples Of Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    Mob mentality is when a group of people influences individuals to do something they would not normally do. A current example of mob mentality is when people start running in a certain direction; another person will automatically run in the same direction (Smith). The United States past also contains mob mentality. The first incident was the iconic lynching in Indiana. The lynching is famous due to the photographer catching the gruesome acts on camera. The mob had dragged Tom, and Abe out of the jail cell they were inside, then lynched them (“Strange Fruit: Anniversary). The photo taken at the lynching shows two black men hanging from the tree, along with spectators watching the awful event, and they were watching as if it were a show (Beitler). Characters from To Kill a Mockingbird experience mob mentality too. The most obvious event is when the mob shows up at the jail, and they want to hurt Tom. Walter had the mob mentality, but had escaped this when Scout singles him out. A less obvious occurrence was while Scout was getting made fun of by all of the ladies at the tea party. Miss Maudie was the only one who did not fall into that mentality, which helped her stand up for Scout (Lee 308-309). Mob mentality was not the only incident shown during the…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street Essay
    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street Essay

    Have you ever been part of a group that turns into a mob just from one person doing something that gets everyone doing the same thing? For some people this happened to them and could have got them in trouble. In the story, The Twilight Zone “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and “All Summers in a Day.” These stories show a group of people that could turn into a mob.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stephen Reicher: The Psychology Of Crowd Psychology
    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stephen Reicher: The Psychology Of Crowd Psychology

    Stephen Reicher has proven himself in psychology with his numerous academic achievements. He has become fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the vice president of ADRIPS and a consultant to Scientific American Mind. A former editor for the British Journal of Social Psychology and author of 9 books and countless articles. He has used his knowledge to advance psychology in the area of group behavior. This can be observed in his scientific works on the psychology of crowd dynamics, contesting the nature of conformity, and collective action and psychology.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird
    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    Mob mentality is a unique behavioral characteristic that emerges when people are in big groups (Smith). When people would get into larger groups their behavior would completely change due to another person’s actions. Peer pressure is another reason why people change when they are in a group. Like when teens are around the wrong crowd they can be pressured into things they would not do usually (Smith). Also moods of mobs change depending on what occurs, like one small act of violence can trigger a mob to be very violent and angry (Smith). People do not think when they are in mobs they usually just do what everyone else does. Some people use a mob as an excuse to loot through people’s homes and steal belongings. They also have a chance to destroy houses and private properties of the town (Smith). Behaviors can vary from happy to confused to angry to furious. Like prison mobs tend to get violent and angry and shopper mobs get tend to be faster and trample people in the way. Mob mentality is shown a few times in To Kill a Mockingbird. When Atticus took on the Tom Robinson case a lot of the Whites in Maycomb did not support him. They called him names and kids at school made fun of Jem and Scout. A mob men also met Atticus at the jailhouse, because they did not like the fact Atticus was defending a Black man. Scout, Jem, and Dill interrupted the “meeting” and Scout did not know most of the men that were…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Societal Norms In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson
    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Societal Norms In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

    Most of these groups have a variation of mob mentality often leading to violence. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”, the townspeople kill a member of the town each “lottery”. Many of the members don’t even know the reason they kill someone, but the slaughtering is a tradition, so the entire town stones one member. They seemingly moved as a single like- minded unit as “they were upon her” (Jackson 34). Because of these radically violent groups, groups must be extremely resilient to go against what others don’t believe is correct.…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Conformity In David Icke's 'What Makes Good People Do Bad Things'
    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Conformity In David Icke's 'What Makes Good People Do Bad Things'

    David Icke, an author, conspiracy theorist, and former football player and sportscaster once said “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 and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.” Here, Icke is saying that humans often become attached to groups. They do not tend to question what is going on, as long as they feel safe and secure with any group. Humans thrive on the feeling of being included, so much so that they lose themselves and start to become one with their group. They become numb to new ideas different…

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Discuss Research Findings Into Conformity
    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Discuss Research Findings Into Conformity

    A study conducted on conformity was by Asch in 1951 to see if participants would conform to majority social influence and give incorrect answers in a blatantly obvious scenario, in a situation where all but one of the 'participants' were confederates. The participants were shown a vertical line and were asked to call out which other 3 lines was the same as the first line.…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Examples Of Mob Mentality
    • 140 Words
    • 1 Page

    Examples Of Mob Mentality

    mob mentality is something that is not very talked about but its rooted in our society so deep that sometimes we don’t even realize were part of it. Things like nationalism, globalism, stock market trends, superstition, and even home décor are all examples of mob mentality. This type of thinking occurs because people who share a similar view about something can find that when they gather, their energy and influence grow. This can sometimes become very dangerous. If the message that is growing and spreading is negative or hateful this can, and in most cases, will lead to violence. And when the individuals see this kind of behavior as rewarding it makes their movement even stronger. This can spiral out of control and turn into chaos. Until other…

    • 140 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Asch Conformity Essay
    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Asch Conformity Essay

    One famous experiment about conformity is the Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment. In 1951, Asch conducted an experiment to investigate on conformity and social pressure. The experiment was…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Bystander Effect Definition
    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Bystander Effect Definition

    Changing Minds notes this was first witnessed in Kitty Genovese’s murder where several people stated that while they noticed her cries for help, they did not call the police or move to help her because they assumed someone else would act and help. The key here is the assumption that someone else will help, that the duty to act and potentially be effected because of helping, is placed on someone else. All liability and duty is placed on the other people around them and it’s ultimately not their problem. As shown in Today’s kidnapping experiment video, people are, more often than not, focused solely on themselves, cut off from what’s occurring around them. Rather than being an active bystander, someone who is actively ignoring the situation at hand, like the lady who glances at the people several times but doesn’t react, passive bystanders are focused solely on themselves and in doing so, do not notice the action occurring, or just don’t care. Reverend Martin Niemöller talks about not speaking out, ending with “then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me,” warning that if people do not intervene early even when it does not effect them, the situation can escalate much larger and eventually will. Movements, multiple people taking actions, helps a larger group be empowered to react as…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More

Related Topics