Riots are synonymous with chaos, destruction, lawlessness, and civil disobedience. On the surface, riots may just seem as a ruleless miasma of violence, however, there is much more to riots than meets the eye.
It’s no secret that people act differently when in a riot then when they are alone. People normally just don’t go around smashing windows, setting cars on fire, and touting their opinions on brightly colored signs on a normal day, so what exactly brings out these behaviors in people? The answer lies in group dynamics, conformity, anonymity, and the safety of numbers. Before we delve into the psychological aspects of rioting, it's important to understand why people riot.
In particular, the man at 19 seconds is a perfect example of this difference in benefit. Standing up to tear gas and fire hoses offers him very little (if any) benefit, but offers the group benefit in that it furthers the groups agenda, and inspires others around him to stand strong and stay with the group. This shift in benefit helps the riot and rioters stay together and keep the movement going on for longer. Social Identity also plays a big role in riots. When in a riot, people begin to view themselves less as individuals, and more as a collective. Anonymity also comes into play within an individual's social identity. In the footage above, you may have noticed that many of the protesters are wearing masks or obscuring their face in some way. Anonymity is also increased by the presence of others, reducing many rioters to just another face in the crowd. This anonymity is responsible for many of the destructive behaviors that occur during riots. Researchers have discovered that anonymity promotes group rules and values as opposed to individual acting (Dawson (2018)). In other words, the anonymity that the riot provides promotes groupthink by reducing the individual's social identity. Not only that, but anonymity can also increase violent behavior. A study done by Leon Mann in 1981 showed how the “mob-mentality” of people being in a crowd can lead people to act more violently. His study revolved around looking through suicide attempts of people in the past to observe how others around it reacted to it. He focused on cases where crowds were present, such as with people threatening to jump off buildings or bridges. In short, in about half of the cases that included crowds at the scene, the crowd actually encouraged the person to jump. There was even one case where the crowd threw objects at rescuers attempting to save the jumper. The point is, this anonymity and mob-mentality found in riots and crowds make an individual's social identity more malleable, and better reflect the needs of the group than the individual. Finally, we come to the need to align yourself with similar people. While this dynamic seems obvious, it is important to the mentality of rioters as it emphasizes the creation of an in-group between them. What’s more important than the in-group, however, is the out-groups, or anyone that isn’t a part of the riot. According to Lumbert (2005), members of an in-group have trouble assigning human emotions to members of an out-group. This in-group mentality also makes members more reluctant to sympathize and empathize with out-group members. In riots, this lack of emotion towards outgroups shows itself as lighting fires, destroying public/private property, assaulting members of counter protests, and general dissent towards those not part of the riot.
Eisold, Ken. “Understanding Why People Riot.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 18 Aug. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hidden-motives/201108/understanding-why-people-riot.
Lumbert, Samantha P. “Why We Comply.” Review and Criticisms of Attachment Theory, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005, www.personalityresearch.org/papers/lumbert.removed.
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Robbers cave. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/robbers-cave.html
Telegraph, The, director. Police Fire Tear Gas at 'Yellow Vest' Fuel Protesters in Paris. YouTube, YouTube, 24 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmmxXSvj-3s.
“Yellow Vests Movement.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement.
It’s no secret that people act differently when in a riot then when they are alone. People normally just don’t go around smashing windows, setting cars on fire, and touting their opinions on brightly colored signs on a normal day, so what exactly brings out these behaviors in people? The answer lies in group dynamics, conformity, anonymity, and the safety of numbers. Before we delve into the psychological aspects of rioting, it's important to understand why people riot.
Why do we riot?
While many believe riots are caused by politics, a much more accurate statement would be to see riots are caused by a perceived injustice or unlawful treatment. Riots are often set in motion by a specific event and are often preceded by a slow build-up of injustices until the resentment in people spurs them into protesting, which then has the possibility of boiling over into a riot. A keen example of recent rioting would be the Yellow Vest Movement in Paris (Pictured above). The Yellow Vest Movement is a grassroots campaign for the working class, which demands a higher minimum wage, a tax on wealth, and the immediate resignation of Emmanuel Macron, France’s current president. (Wikipedia, 2019) This movement was set off by a tax levied on carbon emissions, which increased the price of fuel in France to a point where many working-class rural citizens could not afford the increase in fuel. This caused protests, which eventually blew over into full-blown riots. So, what happened? What caused the protesters to conform to such a violent standard? To understand, the psychology influencing the participants must be analyzed.Methods within the Madness
An extremely big player in riots is conformity. Conformity doesn’t just mean conforming to social norms, it also means conforming to the standards set by groups. In this case, rioters are conforming to non-conformity, and are conforming to the mentality of the group they are a part of. According to Lumbert (2005), people conform for five main reasons, correctness, social acceptance, group goals, social identity, and the need to align ourselves to similar people. All of these reasons for conformity can be found in riots. Correctness involves our desire right the perceived wrongs that spurred the riot into action. Social acceptance stems from our need to be liked by those around us. Social acceptance in rioting causes individuals to act in ways the group would approve of, this in turn causes individuals to consider their actions in relation to what would benefit the group, and not necessarily themselves. This is what causes people in riots to stand up to authority, because while standing up to authority isn’t a wise move for the individual, it is essential to keeping the group together as long as possible. Group goals are fairly obvious to see in their relation to protests and riots. Many reasons protests form is to enact some political or social goal. In fact, group goals contribute strongly to creating essential in-group dynamics that bring people together. As seen in the famous Robber Caves experiment, an essential exercise for promoting in-group dynamics and bonding between people is to have them work together for a single goal that requires their combined effort. (McLeod (2008)). This again contributes to why rioters function in a way that may not offer individual benefit, but instead offer group benefit. An example of this in play can be found in the following video.What can we learn from riots?
In short, the five main reasons why people conform show a strong presence in riots and contribute to why people act the way they do when participating in a riot. It’s important not only to notice these conformity causing traps but also to understand them so that we can hope to resist their grasp when put in a situation where conforming would cause us to act violently or hurt others. While it’s hard to resist social pressures to conform, sometimes the best option is to be the odd one out and restrain ourselves from doing something that we might regret, even if it means not conforming to those around you. What else do you think we can learn from riots? Do you think that you’d ever succumb to the manic social pressure of a riot and join in?References
Dawson, Joe. “Who Is That? The Study of Anonymity and Behavior.” Association for Psychological Science, Association for Psychological Science, Apr. 2018, www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/who-is-that-the-study-of-anonymity-and-behavior. \Eisold, Ken. “Understanding Why People Riot.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 18 Aug. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hidden-motives/201108/understanding-why-people-riot.
Lumbert, Samantha P. “Why We Comply.” Review and Criticisms of Attachment Theory, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005, www.personalityresearch.org/papers/lumbert.removed.
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Robbers cave. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/robbers-cave.html
Telegraph, The, director. Police Fire Tear Gas at 'Yellow Vest' Fuel Protesters in Paris. YouTube, YouTube, 24 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmmxXSvj-3s.
“Yellow Vests Movement.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement.
Quite the interesting post! Also, kudos on using the word 'miasma'. Anyways, the entire time I was reading I was thinking about the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. There's a scene in the book where a mob forms with people that the protagonist, Scout, knows. Scout singles one of them out saying something along the lines of "Hi" and that is enough for the guy to "snap out" of the mob-mentality and, if I remember correctly, the mob actually disbands after that. That might be an interesting thing for you to look into with regards to this post!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it's rather important to talk about practical applications. As much as I enjoy discussing theories and whatnot, fields such as Social Psychology are so strong because they have a real impact on the world we live in. So going off of that, what are some practical techniques you would suggest employing to help disband a riot peacefully? (I realize that there are circumstances that a riot may seem like the only option but we do claim to live in a democratic country so THEORETICALLY we should be able to solve our differences without destroying everything around us.)
Very unique post and was entertaining to read! I really liked the part of how even thought some people do not tend to riot or protest as just an individual, but with group conformity the individuals collaborate to get the message and point across. I also like how you mentioned that conformity can not always be the best form of acts. People whom conform together to act with violence can become a dangerous threat to others. I think that Nazi Germany, as we discussed in class, is a prime example of this. Being the odd one out is not always a bad thing and definitely needs to be acted on in violent situations. I think we can learn that not all riots have to be violent and "bad". They can be done in a peaceful manner and still get the point across just as well as violence. This could potentially cause people to listen more as well!
ReplyDeleteHey nice post! I found the parts about how individuals will sometimes perform actions with little to no personal benefit, just to further the riot. While I can certainly picture this, it is not a factor I've thought about before. It's always big to have someone, some figure, that the rest of the group can rally behind. I feel like this may be one of the places riots can be curbed as well though. It takes some sort of conformity for a bunch of people to join together in a riot, and they usually need a leader of sorts. But I believe the same can be said of more peaceful groups. As long as you have a group of people united toward the same goal, there is potential for progress, it is just the method of getting there that is different. Here is where I think different styles of leadership would come in. Where the riot leader fans the fire of the riot, other leaders could just as well lead by more of a calm and collected reason. While this may be a bit of an idealistic viewpoint in some regards, I do think it might be worth considering, and hopefully full scale riots would eventually decrease with it.
ReplyDeleteI think rioting is a very unique social response, but also a dangerous one in some cases. The 'mob mentality' that comes with it can lead people to do things they would never have done as an individual--defacing stores, burning private and public property, etc etc. There are ways we can break up riots--like using teargas to force people to focus on their own needs (in that case, pain) as opposed to the group actions, turning them from a mob into individuals, in a sense. But what drives this mindlessness, this radical and extreme conformity, and how can we best mitigate that? I think this article did a great job tackling a few of these questions.
ReplyDeleteForming a group to work together and change a wrong is highly effective, especially as a protest or a strike. However, letting it turn to violence is admittedly very problematic. This post definitely explains the sociological processes behind how the riot persist, but I think a paragraph on what exactly can be done to prevent protests from becoming violent is important as well. How many violent/illegal actions from how many different people, compared to the size of the group, does it take before everyone joins in? Or does the forming of a riot depend more on the members of the group; their tendency to conform and how they respond to group dynamics, current levels of anonymity, and the size of the group they perceive to be with? What contributes to a well mannered protest transforming into a riot and how can that be prevented while still allowing the protest to exist at full strength? In this post, the reasons explained on why we riot are the same reasons why we protest but not much is explained on how they “eventually blew over into full-blown riots” so how does it happen?
ReplyDeleteI think the point about anonymity was very interesting. It reminded me of the internet, another place where anonymity is very easy to obtain. Many people have "throw-away" accounts on social media where they can troll others anonymously or follow interests that they do not want their friends or family members knowing they care about. It enables people to do and say things to other people that they would not otherwise do, like in a riot. I just thought that was an interesting connection to point out.
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting to read, Thank you! I wonder how mental illnesses like depression or anxiety work with conformity in relation to riots.
ReplyDeleteMental illness and riots is a very interesting question. While I don’t know of any examples where mental illness directly impacted the riot as a whole, I do know of a few cases where mental illness has affected mass hysteria. This is gonna sound really stupid and made up, but have you heard of the Great Dancing Plague of 1518? It was a case of violent dancing that went over the course of one month where people would start dancing and not stop for days. Some people even died of heart attacks and strokes because they were dancing so hard. It all start when a girl named Mrs. Troffea started to dance in the streets for four to six days (I would say that's some indication of mental illness). Others started to join her, and eventually the dance grew to a size of about 400 people. So basically, there were about 400 people who couldn’t stop dancing for about a month, and danced to the point where some of them literally died.
DeleteIf you would like to read more about the Dancing Plague of 1518, and I highly suggest you do, you can find more info on it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518
https://www.history.com/news/what-was-the-dancing-plague-of-1518
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-22/edition-7/dancing-plagues-and-mass-hysteria
Honestly, I think this would be a great blog post if any one is looking for ideas. I know I would read it.
I liked how you easily connected riots and mob mentality to the five main reasons for why people conform. Out of these five do you think that there is a single one that has more influence on riots than the others? All five each play a key role in starting and maintaining riots, but in your reading did you see one reason pop up more frequently than the others?
ReplyDeleteI think the need for social acceptance came up the most, as there are a few instances where riots form with no clear goal. For example, you may have heard that of riots that occur in the winning cities of sport games. I’m not really sure what the group goal of the riot would be in that case, I think it would be celebration, but your guess is as good as mine. In these sport related riots, I would say the need for correctness is also low, because the people rioting had a sports team that won. While all five reasons seem to come up in every riot, social acceptance seemed to be the most prominent.
DeleteI remember when the Ferguson riots where happening, there was a lot of destrution and looting, but then some of the looters parents came out and took the looters masks off and dragged them back home. Its funny to think, these people destroying and stealing from other people are so easy swayed by just a single person they know personally. It's like they know its wrong, but as long as nobody will judge them for it they don't care. The moment they have to face that judgment, the facade shatters. I wonder if their may be some sort of inverse mob mentality, like with travelers, if they are in a place with nobody they know, they tend to act differently.
ReplyDeleteI have always found riots to be interesting, every time the news covers the footage of civilians rioting against some larger power it captures your attention. We've seen protests and riots in France and Egypt in the past few years because of the unrest in Egypt with president Abdel Fattah al-SisiFrance's empowerment and the Yellow Vest protesters in France who could not afford the fuel tax. We see people gather to protest/riot to reach new terms as an end result.
ReplyDeleteI think riots are in a lot of ways the best example of conformity,because they take normal people off the street and turn them into something nearly unrecognizable. I think resisting the urge to join in in a situation like that is probably one of the hardest things you could possibly attempt in life. I was wondering if in your research you found any information about resisting the urge to riot yourself or possibly even diffusing one as an onlooker.
ReplyDelete