Mob Mentality

What is a mob?

A large group of people who share a common cause or interest, and who engage in behaviors they wouldn’t do otherwise

What’s the lure of a mob?

“There is a deep part of most of us that takes pleasure in being in a crowd, a real crowd, I mean. A mass of people that is thinking and feeling the same thing at the same time, jumping to its feet as one unit, yelling for a cause, or a team, or a band, or whatever.”

- This American Life, WBEZ radio, “158: Mob Mentality”

A flash mob dance

Woodstock

Vancouver Canucks fans

What’s the lure of a mob?

“…the thrill of being in a rampaging mob is as hardwired into us, as basic to us as a species, as the ability to love.”

- This American Life, WBEZ radio, “158: Mob Mentality”

What is “mob mentality”?

•When people are part of a large group, they often experience a loss of self-awareness, forgetting their individual identity and thinking as one entity. • This leads them to abandon normal

restraints and inhibitions. They often become willing to engage in dangerous behavior.

A stereotypical mob(courtesy of “The Simpsons”)

An actual mob

Occupy Wall Street

When mobs turn violent

What makes people succumb to mob mentality?

• Emotional excitement• Physical anonymity• Diffusion of responsibility

Are certain people more susceptible to mob mentality?

People facing dire circumstances are more likely to engage in looting, such as when resources were scarce after Hurricane Sandy.

Are certain people more susceptible to mob mentality?

Adolescents who share antisocial tendencies and lack close family bonds are more likely to search for social identity in gangs.

A division of the A division of the Crips street gang Aryan Warriors gang

Mob mentality over criminal court cases

“What is troubling is the public's fascination with this case, the need to make Casey a villain, and how the media have helped feed the mob mentality. In particular, nearly all the TV pundits castigated my former partner and friend Jose Baez, literally raking his personal and professional life through the coals. They landed, heavily, on any witness who spoke up in Casey's favor, making witnesses extraordinarily difficult to find and interview because everyone was afraid of the backlash from the public and the prosecution. There were exculpatory witnesses who were intimidated to the point that they feared coming forward. (Word on the street? Helping Casey Anthony is dangerous.) I was assaulted myself while investigating this case. I continue to receive hate mail of a type that is hard to imagine.”

– Andrea Lyon, Casey Anthony’s lawyer (7/18/11)

Mob mentality inTo Kill a Mockingbird

What mobs threaten or harass…•…Tom Robinson/Atticus?•…Dolphus Raymond?•…Miss Maudie?

Mob mentality inTo Kill a Mockingbird

“A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know—doesn’t say much for them, does it?”

– Atticus (p. 210)