LeBon on Effect of the Mob (McPhail, p. 4)

1
LeBon on Effect of the Mob (McPhail, p. 4)

• Anonymity
• Unaccountability
• Invincibility

2
Marx and McAdam (pp. 40-42) Seven Social
Influence Processes

• Legitimacy in Numbers
• Illusion of Unanimity
• Diffusion of Responsibility
• Anonymity
• Solidarity
• Social Facilitation
• Immediacy

3
Effect of Crowd on Individual Perception of
Social Support
High
Perceived Social Support
Low
Few
Many
Number of Participants
source McPhail, p. 123, based on Berk
4
Integrated Political Theory of 1970

• Mass society Macro Level/Institutional
• accessible elites lack of intermediate buffers
  between masses and elites
• available masses lack of integration into local
  associations and collectivities
• Available Masses swept into mass movements that
  threaten accessible elites

5
Kornhauser's Mass Society
Availability of Non-Elites Availability of Non-Elites Availability of Non-Elites Availability of Non-Elites
Accessibility of Elites Low High
Accessibility of Elites Low Communal Society Totalitarian Society
Accessibility of Elites High Pluralist Society Mass Society

• Available Non-elites Lack of secondary,
  voluntary associations mal-integration
• Accessible Elites Vulnerability to non-elite
  influence, direct or mediated

6
Collective Behavior Organizational/Group Level

• Neil Smelser, Theory of Collective Behavior,
• mass movements begin with breakdown of social
  control
• milling and gossip conducive to generalized
  beliefs
• need for immediate action
• sense of empowerment
• utopian goals

7
Frustration-Aggression Social Psychological
Theory

• Ted Gurr intolerable "want-get" gap
• literature on reference groups
• relative deprivation
• James Davies
• "J" curve of declining rewards/expectations
• intolerable gap (like Gurr)

8
Davies J Curve of Rising Expectation Leading to
Frustration
High
intolerable want-get gap
expected
Rewards
obtained
Low
Early
Late
Time