Crowds, obedience and the psychology of group behavior, with Stephen Reicher, PhD

Speaking of Psychology

Kim Mills

Health & Fitness, Life Sciences, Science, Mental Health

4.3 • 781 Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when people gather in crowds – whether for political rallies, protests, football games or religious pilgrimages? Stephen Reicher, PhD, of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, discusses why “mob mentality” is a myth; other misconceptions about crowd behavior; the role of leaders in groups and what can we learn from re-examining some classic psychology studies on obedience to authority; and what we’ve learned about leaders, followers, group identity and collective behavior from the COVID-19 pandemic. For transcripts, links and more information, please visit the Speaking of Psychology Homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus why it's so important to understand the psychology of group behavior. In many places, the course of the pandemic turned on how government leaders communicated with the public and whether people followed, ignored, or fought the advice of public health officials.
0:22.8	The pandemic was a shock to most of us, but the behavioral questions it raised have long
0:28.1	preoccupied psychologists. What makes people follow authority figures or reject them?
0:34.4	How does group identity affect people's behavior? Today, we're going to talk about these questions and more broadly, the psychology of crowds and group behavior.
0:44.3	When people think about group behavior, the image that may come to mind is of mob mentality,
0:50.3	the idea that people can get swept up in the madness of a crowd and lose their ability to reason and follow their own good judgment.
0:58.3	But how accurate is that image?
1:01.1	Do people behave differently in a group or a crowd compared with when they're on their own?
1:06.5	If so, how?
1:08.3	What are the roles of leaders and followers in groups?
1:11.8	What can we learn from re-examining some of the classic psychology studies on obedience and
1:16.8	authority, such as the Milgram Shock Experiments and the Stanford Prison Experiment?
1:22.2	And what have we learned about collective behavior from the COVID-19 pandemic?
1:33.3	Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life.
1:37.3	I'm Kim Mills.
1:42.3	My guest today is Dr. Steven Reicher, a professor of psychology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
1:49.7	He is an expert in group psychology and collective behavior and has studied how people behave in crowds,
1:56.1	the factors that influence whether or not people obey authority figures, and how groups can be a force for social change.
2:03.7	He is a member of SAGE, a Behavioral Science Advisory Committee that has advised the UK government throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
2:11.6	He also writes regularly for the public in outlets, including The Guardian and the Conversation,
2:16.9	about how behavioral science can
2:18.6	inform our understanding of social issues, such as pandemic behavior, crowd policing, authoritarianism,
	...

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