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Crowds and Rioting. Emergent Norm Theory of Crowds. Individuals are guided by norms in most situations – the same norms that guide most crowd behavior But in a crowd, we may be confused about what behavior is appropriate – and so we look to others for cues
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Emergent Norm Theory of Crowds • Individuals are guided by norms in most situations – the same norms that guide most crowd behavior • But in a crowd, we may be confused about what behavior is appropriate – and so we look to others for cues • So if a norm of violence emerges from the crowd, all violent acts will be cheered and rewarded
Contagion Theory • The crowd is an organism with a life of its own – a breathing, living organism • The crowd has a collective mind of its own • When contagion sweeps through a crowd with heightened intensity, a riot and violent behavior can easily occur
Convergence Theory • Like-minded people join crowds and so the “convergence behavior” that we see is a result of people who are similar doing the same thing • People act much the same outside of a “riot” and so there is no reason to believe that they’ll act differently during a riot
Videos • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXss0HvTUj8&feature=related (from the inside) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJbN1HyidRo&feature=related (from the inside) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZkHIlK64RQ&feature=related (from the outside)
Discussion • How do you explain people jumping up and down and cheering? • How do you explain why some individuals commit violent acts and not others? • Why do some people cheer violence? Sometimes crowd movement and pushing and rushing are nothing more than people wanting to “get good views” of some exciting occurrence