COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Why would "ordinary people" engage in looting and vandalism? Why do crowds become violent? Some Sociologists have argued that the answers lie in crowd psychology. Gustava LeBon, who has been called the 'grandfather of collective behaviour theory, strongly, supported a contagion theory of crowd behaviour. LeBon was greatly influenced by the current events of his time. France, in his day, (the second half of the nineteenth century) was not unlike the United States in recent decades. Everything seemed to be changing. Demonstrations that bordered on riots were almost weekly events. LeBon was also influenced by some of his contemporaries: Charles Darwin; who had traced the origins of humanity back to the animal kingdom, and the Sigmund Freud, who was exploring the unconscious levels of the mind.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
explain meaning of collective behaviour
describe forms of collective behaviour
describe collective behaviour as a breakdown in social order.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 What is Collective Behaviour?

Collective behaviour is seen as a potentially wide-ranging field of study which deals with the ways on which collective behaviours emerge as responses to problematic circumstances and situations. At one extreme,  this can mean the study of coordinated and organised social movements; at the other, it refers to the seemingly spontaneous eruption of common behavioural patterns, as for example, in episodes of mass hysteria. Between these are responses to natural disaster, riots, lynchings, crazes, fads, fashions, rumours, looms panics and even rebellions or revolutions.

In crowds, according to LeBon, people cease to act as individuals. People of different ages, sexes, educational levels, and occupations chant the same slogans, to the same things. If one person runs, everybody runs. The crowd develops a mind of its own. Participants become highly suggestible: they will believe almost anything. Specifically, collective behaviour has to do with the non-institutionalised group behaviour that takes place without clear-cut direction from the normative system of culture. Usually, collective behaviour is unplanned and its effects unforeseen.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1

What is your understanding of collective behaviour?

3.2 Forms of Collective Behaviour

The six main forms of collective behaviour include:

1.  panics 
2.  crowds 
3. fashions 
4.  rumours 
5. social movements .public opinion 

Panic This is one of the forms of collective behaviour which ensues when people, being faced with danger such as fire outbreak, tend to loose their capacity to cooperate and hence their chances of escape are reduced. It is usually seen as the most transitory and rarest form of mass action.

Crowds
This is the next form of collective behaviour which tends to be more structured than panics and usually being guided by social norms. The presence of the influence of social norms on crowds makes possible members of a crowd to be easily persuaded to work toward a common goal.

Public Opinion This refers to the aggregate views of the people on a particular public issue or government policy at a given period. It is a form of collective behaviour in which a relatively large number of people put their views on a particular public issue together.

Social Movement This refers to the (more or less) organised effort of a large number of people to produce some social change. Examples of this are the women's movement (e.g. women empowerment campaign team in Nigeria), environmental movement (e.g. movement to ban nuclear weapons), etc. On the- surface, social movements resemble collective behaviour. Although they are non-violent, protest demonstrations may seem as spontaneous, unstructured, and emotional as a riot.

Fashions Fashion is seen as a great though brief enthusiasm among a relatively large number of people for a particular innovation. Fashions tend to be ephemeral (i.e. short-lived) since their novelty wears off quickly. Ideally, every aspect of human life (e.g. clothes, architecture, philosophy, hair-styles) is usually influenced by fashions.

Rumours This refers to an unverified story that is spread from one person to another. It is the distortions made on a story that is supposed to be relayed on to another person. Going deeper, rumours promote panics, mobs or even riots. Practically, rumours are found in every society and are even part of interpersonal communication.

3.3 Collective Behaviour as a Breakdown in Social order

Often, the media reports episodes of "collective madness". For no apparent reason, large numbers of people usually stop exercising critical judgement and self-control. As a matter of fact, upon closest inspection, such breakdowns may in fact, have some rather long-standing reasons, whether one accepts them as justifying outburst of violent group behaviour or not. Based on this, when the contagious elements in collective madness are fear or anxiety, rather than anger and frustration, the result is called mass hysteria. On the other hand, when the contagion involves wild enthusiasm about some person, object, or activity, the result is called a craze. Based on the views of functionalists, they see mass hysterias and crazes as collective responses to a breakdown in social order. They occur when large numbers of people are troubled but are not sure why or what to do to alleviate the problem. As a result, they become irrational in the sense that they are not aware of the real reason for their distress and their behaviour is not aimed at the actual source of the problem.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

Express your views on collective behaviour as a breakdown in social order.

4.0 CONCLUSION

It should be noted, however, that not all crowds are violent. Some crowds gather to express a common emotion such as joy, excitement, or grief. These are referred to as expressive crowds. Also, a crowd that gathers at a rock concert or at a religious revival is an example of expressive crowd. Therefore, expressive crowds differ from crowds that are violent in that they are more of a means of collectively expressing an emotion and are not intended to lead to violence or political action.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, efforts have been made to describe what is meant by collective behaviour, forms of collective behaviour, and collective behaviour as a breakdown in social order. It has been argued that far from being irrational, behaviour in crowds is determined by rational calculation. People in crowds usually weigh the possible benefits of participation against the costs and join a riot only if they believe it will "payoff'. Actually the benefits may be tangible (stolen goods) or in-tangible (the satisfaction of expressing frustration).

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

1.  What is your understanding of collective behaviour. 
2. State and explain at least four (4) forms of collective behaviour. 
3. Describe your understanding of collective behaviour as a breakdown in social order.