Aggression: Deindividuation

To a large extent, deindividuation is based on the classic crown theory of Le Bon. Le Bon described how an individual transformed when part of a crowd. He claimed that, in a crowd, the combination of anonymity, suggestibility and contagion mean that a 'collective mind' takes possession of the individual. As a consequence, the individual loses self-control and becomes capable of acting in a way that goes against personal or social norms.

Deindividuation is a psychological state characterised by lowered self-evaluation and decreased concerns about evaluation by others.

It leads to an increase in behaviour that would normally be inhibited by personal or social norms.

The psychological state of deindividuation is aroused when individuals join crowds or large groups. Factors that contribue include anonymity (eg. wearing a uniform) and altered consciousness due to drugs or alcohol (Zimbrado, 1969).

Zimbardo has stressed that these same conditions may also lead to an increase in prosocial behaviours (eg. crowds at musical festvals and large religious gatherings). However, the focus of deindividuation theory has been almost exclusively on antisocial behaviour.

Partly because there are social norms inhibiting such 'uncivilised' behaviour and partly because they are easily identifiable.

Being anonymous (and therefore effectively unaccountable) in a crowd has the psychological consequence of reducing inner restraints and increasing behaviours that are usually inhibited.

According to Zimbardo, being part of a crowd can diminish awareness of our own individuality. In a large crowd, each person is faceless and anonymous - the larger the group, the greater the anonymity.

There is also a diminished fear of negative evaluation of actions and a reduced sense of guilt.

Conditions that increase anonymity also minimise concerns about evalutation by others, and so weaken the normal barriers to antisocial behaviour that are based on guilt or shame.

- Groups of 4 female undergraduates were required to deliver electric shocks to another student to 'aid learning'
- Half of the ppts wore bulky lab coats and hoods that hid their gaves, sat in separate cubicles, and were never referred to by name.

- The other ppts wore their normal clothes, were given large name tags to wear and were introduced to each other by name. They were also able to see each other when seated at the shock machines.

- Both sets of ppts were told they could see the person being shocked

- Ppts in the deindividuation condition shocked the 'learner' for twice as long as did indentifiable ppts

- This study led to the suggestion that anonymity, a key component of the deindividuation process, increased aggressiveness.

- Investigated whether wearing a uniform when part of a sports team increased aggressive behaviour.

- They randomly assigned German schoolchildren to teams of 5 people, half the teams were wearing the same orange shirts, and the other half their normal street clothes

- The children wearing orange (who were harder to tell apart) played the game consistently more aggressively than the children in their everyday clothes.

- Mullen analysed newspaper cuttings of 60 lynchings in the the US between 1899 and 1946

- He found that the more people there were in the mob, the greater the savagery with which they killed their victims

Prentice-Dunn et al claim that it is reduced self-awareness, rather than simply anonymity, that leads to deindividuation.

If an individual is self-focused, they tend to focus on, and act according to, the internalised attitudes and moral standards, thus reducing the likelihood of antisocial behaviour.

On the other hand, if an individual submerges themselves within a group, they may lose the focus, becoming less privately self-aware, and therefore less able to regulate their own behaviour.

Johnson and Downing explored the idea that rather than deindividuation automatically increasing the incidence of aggression, any behaviour produced could be a product of local group norms.

- used the same experimental conditions as Zimbardo's 1969 deindividuation experiment but this time were made anonymous by means of a mask and overalls (reminiscent of Ku Klux Klan) or by means of nurses uniforms

- Ppts shocked more than a control condition when dressed in the KKK uniforms, but actually shocked less than the controls when dressed as nurses