To understand crowd behavior, you have to understand the crowd. A crowd is a group of people united by a common belief or idea. The characteristics of a crowd are much more different than the characteristics of an individual. LeBon believes when a person is part of a crowd, the person becomes less civilized.
For my observation of crowd behavior, I decided to look back on the riots that occurred in the 90s after the Rodney King trial. If you don’t know who Rodney King is, he was essentially the first black male to get brutally beaten in the 90’s by cops caught on camera in LA. This became a national issue people were interested in. His trial against the cops that beat him, resulted in all of them getting off with no consequences. The community was outraged, and thousands of people reacted by rioting. Groups of people were setting buildings on fire, protesting, getting in large fights, fighting the cops etc. The black community was more than tired of being treated unfairly by the law, being harassed just for being black, and the injustice that occurs in the system. So, these people got together and started tearing the city down.
People behave like this in a crowd, but why not like this on their own? Simply the fear of being arrested and facing the consequences alone.
LeBon argues that when in a crowd, the anonymity that the crowd provides to the individual due to the large amount of people, means that their fear of consequences gets lost. When you have anonymity, individuals lose their moral responsibilities, their ability to restrain certain instincts, and gain a temporary feeling of invincibility. This behavior was clearly displayed in the occurrences that happened after the Rodney King trial.
According to Aristotle, a "man" was a political animal because it is in his nature to have the power of speech and moral reasoning. Anyone who was an outcast was considered a bird who flies alone. Not sure if I agree or disagree to his statement, but he might have been on to something...
Aristotle blog:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/164
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