Summary
In popular imagination, being in a crowd makes people scary and irrational. But is this true? In this edition of Analysis, David Edmonds asks social psychologists - including a leading expert on groups, Steve Reicher - about the psychology of crowds. This is far more than merely a theoretical matter. It has profound implications for how we police crowds.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:03.0 | Now are you listening on your own or in a group of people? |
| 0:07.0 | This week David Edmonds looks at the psychology of the crowd. |
| 0:12.0 | They're very scary. |
| 0:14.0 | They're violent, they're dangerous. |
| 0:18.0 | They're dangerous. |
| 0:21.0 | They're uncontrollable. |
| 0:29.0 | In crowds we lose autonomy, we lose our identity. Our individual values are swamped. |
| 0:31.0 | In the mass, we're no longer quite ourselves. |
| 0:35.0 | Well, that's the traditional view of crowds and it goes back to the 19th century and a French psychologist Gustav LeBond. |
| 0:46.0 | In the crowd, according to LeBond, we revert to a more brutal primitive self. |
| 0:54.3 | By the mere fact that he forms part of an organized crowd, man descends several rungs in |
| 1:00.2 | the ladder of civilization. Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual. |
| 1:05.0 | In the crowd, he's a barbarian. |
| 1:10.0 | The Bons theories influenced a generation of politicians pre-World War II, and his depiction of the crowd, |
| 1:17.2 | whether political demonstrators or football fans, has gripped popular imagination. But in this edition of analysis I'll be questioning the received wisdom. |
| 1:27.0 | Crowds are less homogenous, more fluid than we think. |
| 1:31.0 | This has profound implications for how they should be policed. |
| 1:36.4 | As for LeBond, says British psychologist Steve Reicher, his anxiety about crowds should be recognized |
| 1:42.4 | as a product of its time and place. |
| 1:45.7 | LeBahn was writing during an era of rapid urbanization, worker organization and considerable |
| 1:51.7 | social upheaval. |
... |
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