De-Individuation & Aggression (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

De-individuation & crowd behaviour

• De-individuation was originally used by Le Bon (1895) to explain the behaviour of individuals in crowds, where we lose our sense of individual self-identity and responsibility for our behaviour, and have a greater disregard for norms and even laws

  • Responsibility is shared throughout the crowd, so we experience less personal guilt at harmful aggression directed at others

• Zimbardo (1969) distinguished between individuated and de-individuated behaviour

  • In an individuated state our behaviour is generally rational and normative, conforming to social norms, whereas de-individuated behaviours are emotional, impulsive and irrational

• People may find themselves behaving more aggressively than usual due to the effects of deindividuation, as it is easier to act with and part of the group rather than standing out, e.g.,

  • a football fan rioting with fellow fans after a match

  • a child going along with a gang of bullies who are tormenting another child

• Crowds give individuals anonymity

  • It is much easier to act out of character if someone is hidden in a crowd

  • This may explain why some people wear masks during riots or other crowd-led aggressive behaviour

• Key factors which influence crowd-led deindividuation are

  • the wearing of a uniform

  • acting in darkness

  • being in an altered state (drugs, alcohol)

  • wearing a disguise

Deindividuation & self-awareness

• As cited above, it is the loss of self-awareness that contributes to de-individuation

• A loss of self-awareness brings with it anonymity, and it is the effects of anonymity that contribute further to the processes of de-individuation as follows (Prentice-Dunn & Rogers, 1982):

  • Private self-awareness concerns how we pay attention to our own feelings and behaviour, and this is reduced when we are part of a crowd, as our attention becomes focused outwards to the events around us so we pay less attention to our own beliefs and feelings

  • Public self-awareness refers to how much we care about what other people think of our behaviour, and this is also reduced in crowds, as we realise we are just one individual amongst many and are anonymous, so our behaviour is less likely to be judged by others

    • We no longer care how others see us, so we become less accountable for our aggressive and destructive actions

• Once an individual is not part of the crowd anymore, e.g., they have gone home or they see someone they care about watching them, then the effects of anonymity wear off

  • That person may be left with a sense of shame, guilt, or even horror at what they have done

• The dawn of the internet has brought with it ample opportunities for anonymity as people 'hide’ behind usernames, avatars, false identities

  • Being at a distance from people with whom one will probably never meet is akin to the feeling of being part of an anonymous crowd

Research which investigates de-individuation & aggression

• Dodd (1985) asked 229 undergraduate psychology students in 13 classes: 'If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?'

  • Dodd found that 36% of the responses involved some form of antisocial behaviour and 26% were actual criminal acts, the most common being to rob a bank, while only 9% were prosocial, which demonstrates a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour

• Douglas & McGarty (2001) looked at aggressive online behaviour in chatrooms and instant messaging, and found a strong correlation between anonymity and 'flaming', the sending or posting of threatening or hostile messages

  • The most aggressive messages were sent by those who chose to hide their real identities

• Diener et al. (1976) – a naturalistic covert observation of 1,300 trick-or-treating children at Halloween who were given the opportunity to take extra sweets and money when left alone

  • Significantly more stealing was done by children under conditions of anonymity and who were in a larger group

Evaluation of de-individuation & aggression

Strengths

• Douglas & McGarty's findings support the existence of a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour in a context that has great contemporary relevance, given the activities of online 'trolls' and the exit from social media of several high-profile celebrities

• De-individuation theory can help us to understand aggressive behaviour in online gaming services such as Xbox Live

  • They have many features that promote a psychological state of de-individuation, e.g. a reduction of personal identity through players using 'handles' to identify themselves and the presence of a potentially worldwide 'crowd' of other players

Limitations

• De-individuation does not necessarily lead to aggression, e.g., Crossey et al. (2021) asked participants to imagine walking in time (in synchrony) with a crowd, and found this produced a sense of emotional closeness, or affiliation, with the imagined group

  • This suggests that losing oneself in a crowd can increase positive feelings about the group and produce prosocial rather than aggressive behaviour

• Johnson & Downing (1979) had female participants give fake electric shocks to a confederate, with one group dressed in Ku Klux Klan-type outfits with masks hiding their faces, another dressed as nurses, and a control group wearing their own clothes

  • Compared with the control group, the KKK-dressed participants gave more and more intense shocks while the nurses gave fewer at lower levels, and the nurses were more compassionate towards their victim, suggesting that aggression and prosocial behaviour are both potential outcomes of de-individuation, with normative cues in the situation determining which is more likely

Issues & Debates

• Deindividuation theory can be seen as socially sensitive, as it may portray crowd behaviour negatively, suggesting that people in groups are more likely to lose control and behave aggressively

  • This has implications for how protests and group gatherings are viewed and policed, potentially reinforcing prejudice or stereotyping of certain groups

• Deindividuation theory takes a nomothetic approach, aiming to establish general laws of behaviour in crowds (e.g., anonymity = more aggression)

  • While useful for making broad predictions, it may overlook idiographic factors, such as personality traits, past experiences, or moral reasoning, that influence whether someone actually becomes aggressive in a group