The crowd: a study of the popular mind.
The following are my notes at the first part of The Crowd. Its said that this book has been one of the favorites of many influential since its original publication in 1895. Check out the notes below to see why...
CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CROWDS – PSYCHOLOGICAL LAW OF THEIR MENTAL UNITY.
CHAPTER TWO: THE SENTIMENTS AND MORALITY OF CROWDS
CHAPTER THREE: THE IDEAS, REASONING POWER, AND IMAGINATION OF CROWDS
CHAPTER FOUR: A RELIGIOUS SHAPE ASSUMED BY ALL THE CONVICTIONS OF CROWDS
- A psychological crowd is one where everyones sentiments and ideas all take one direction and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. Emotions often run high in a psychological crowd.
- What seperates a normal crowd from a psychological crowd is the reason for gathering. People packed tightly together in a large city shopping during the holidays is a regular crowd. A political rally full of people there for a canidiate is one example of a psychological crowd. Protesters against corruption is another.
- A psychological crowd doesnt have to be gathered physically in one spot. Any time a segment of people have a dissappearence of conscious personality and feelings and thoughts turning in a definate direction, you have a crowd. For example, in times a great national tragedies, such as 9/11, a crowd can form. During election cycles a canidates supporters forum a large crowd full of isolated individuals.A political movement could be considered a type of crowd.
- A persons behavior can change and/or be altered by their enviorment. How they act in one suitation and place can be vastly different than when in other suitations and places.
- When a crowd forms it takes on a collective mind which makes the people feel, think, and act in a different manner than they would act outside the crowd. Essentially the crowd takes on a personality of its on. For example: A person whos calm and docile when alone may become hyper-violent when in a crowd of protesters.
- A persons more base and primal instincts takes over in a crowd and their feeling of personal responsibility is reduced.
- Crowds in general have a very low general IQ because they dont think rationally.
- Once in a crowd the individuals beging to feel invinicible and to feel like they have more power than they do.
- Acts of the crowd are contagious to such a degree that the members sacrafice their personal interest to that of the collective interest.
- When in a psychological crowd a person is much more suspectable to being influenced and manipulated. They are unable to critically think as well as they normally could. They can be talked into doing things they would not normally do.
- The crowd is intellictually inferor to the isolated individual but the feelings and acts of the crowd may be better or worse all depending on the nature of suggestion the crowd is exposed too. The crowds actions can be good or bad, all depends on how the leader of the crowd turns them. The people can become more heroic or become more evil and villianess.
- In summation: crowds have traits such as impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, absence of judgement, and exaggeration of sentiment.
CHAPTER TWO: THE SENTIMENTS AND MORALITY OF CROWDS
- Crowds arent rational and are highly suspectable to outside influence. They can be easily swayed in one direction or the other and can change directions extremly fast.
- Crowds feel invinicible. The lone person knows rationally he cant really burn down a building but the crowd as a whole feels as if they can and that nothing can stop them.
- The more naturally violent the individuals in the crowd the more violent as a whole the crowd will be. This is why crowds filled with young violent people are most dangerious.
- Crowds are easily persuaded and are always in a state of high suggestability due to the rampant lebvel of high and strong emotions.
- To a highly emotional crowd its easy to make suggestions transform into action no matter the suggestion. Remember, crowds dont think clearly or rationally. The more emotional the less they think and the more they are driven by primal instinct.
- Crowds think in images so when trying to persuade and manipulate crowds use words to paint vivid images in their minds.
- In crowds ideas and emotions are highly contagious.
- Since thoughts and emotions are highly contagious within crowds its a good idea to place your own undercover agents within to stir up the desired ideas. A few people loyal to you in a crowd that chants and yells statements of support to you at the right moments will persuade the entire crowd to support you as well.
- Remember, crowds dont have to be big to exhibit all these traits. A handful of people gathered together and feeling emotional is all it takes.
- Even crowds filled with otherwise intelligent people will still act irrational.
- Crowds exaggerate and take everything out of porportion. For example: A policeman calmly telling a crowd of rioters to "please disperse" will be seen by the crowd as telling them rudely to "get out of here or else!"
- All that said, a skilled influencer can direct a crowd to be good and virtious and the crowd will be capable of doing immense good.
- A crowd is only impressed by excessive sentiments. An orator must resort to using an abusive use of violent affirmations. The orator must exaggerate, affirm, resort to repetitions, and never attempt to prove points by logical arguments. In essense, the orator must use lots of strong emotion, energy, and passion when speaking.
- A crowd will always exaggerate the traits of the leader. Their apparent qualities and virtues will be amplified and exaggerated by the crowd; both good and bad.
- The leader/orator must appeal to the crowd. What may move one crowd would bore another.
- Opinions, ideas, and beliefs suggested to the crowd are either accepted or rejected as whole and are considered absolute truths by the crowd when accepted.
- Crowds are amoral and their behavior, if the do good or bad things, is at the whim of the leader(s) and how he/they turn the direction of the crowd.
CHAPTER THREE: THE IDEAS, REASONING POWER, AND IMAGINATION OF CROWDS
- There are two types of psychological crowds: crowds influenced by current ideas of the moment (Occupy Wallstreet and Black Lives Matter movements for example), and more stable long term crowds such as religious crowds.
- To influence crowds the ideas presented must be absoulte, uncompromising, and simple in shape.
- Complex ideas musty be "dumbed down" and simplified when given to the crowd.
- Crowds have a very elementary ability to reason.
- Logical fallacies work very well on crowds.
- Crowds have a very vivid imagination and are best effected by images. Use words to paint vivid images in their mind but also use physical examples that crowds can see. For example, in Black Lives Matter protest the leaders would hold up giant pictures of black men being beaten by cops. The Occupy Wallstreet movement built human pinatias dressed in a suit and filled with fake money. When beaten the fake money would fall out. This image encouraged people to be violent against the rich bankers.
- To control a crowd you must control their imignation.
- Crowds do not reason, they accept or reject ideas as a whole, they do not tolerate discussion nor contridiction, and suggestions often transform into action.
CHAPTER FOUR: A RELIGIOUS SHAPE ASSUMED BY ALL THE CONVICTIONS OF CROWDS
- Crowds often resemeble a religious sentiment and often exhibit behavior that is akin to worship of the leader, blind submission to the leader and/or cause, inability to discuss the dogma, desire to spread the causes ideas, and the tendancy to see outsiders as enemies.
- The followers often believe themselves to be enlightened and to know what others dont know. They become ingrained with intolerance and fanaticism.