A reflection essay about crowds effect
In today's modern society, when information technology develops, it is easier for us to access information, and it is easier for us to get caught up in the crowd's thinking. Humans are social creatures. They will have collective behavior like all elementary school students going to school at 7 am. Collective behavior is essential in a population of social organisms, especially humans, when we live in social relationships such as family, friends, colleagues, etc. In some cases, when we are in an argument or a choice without enough information, we will usually trust the crowd more. People living in society should always be affected and governed by the general and majority laws. Due to the mentality of taming the crowd or of easily fitting in with the group, the thought "the majority is always right." Usually, mob syndrome is a behavior that does little or no harm and often causes negative effects. extremes in society, but if affected by emotions, the reaction and consequences will be different. For example, when you see people gathering in a restaurant to queue up to buy things, you will be curious and you may also become one of them because of the thought: "Many people buy food, so make sure the food is yummy." This is when the crowd is swayed by curiosity, and this does not harm. But in some schools, if the crowd takes in misinformation and follows others like sheep with negative emotions like anger or fear, the consequences can be unpredictable. If in the example above, maybe the food is not as good as you expected, the result is that you will be disappointed and never buy food at that store again. But what if the crowd is affected by negative emotions like anger or fear? There was an accident that just happened in Vietnam when a kind person came to help the victim but was misunderstood by the family as the cause of the accident, so the victim's family shouted for people to come round and arrest him. and brutally beaten, people just follow the majority and don't care about the actual situation. So at the end, who will be responsible for the victim? with a relaxed, free mentality, without fear of being punished by the law simply because "there are too many people who act like me, who will be punished"? or with the mentality of "it's all just a misunderstanding/who in the world" (my case) will do the same.
According to Le Bon's theory, when In a crowd, we are nameless and faceless, and this allows us to act emotionally and irrationally different from ordinary people when we hide our faces. This primitive follows a "mask" of civilized behavior. Today, most sociologists do not agree with Le Bon's simple interpretation but rather believe in a position in norm theory, namely that members develop a new norm on their own. It will be easy to get the crowd to conform to that norm. For example, a group of parents believes that giving their children extra lessons will help them learn better and have more knowledge because everyone gives their children extra lessons. There may be some parents who can't afford to send their children to school, but because they don't want to be different or let their children lose to others, they still try to let them study with their friends.
The strength of the collection combined with the obedience of each individual has created a mentality that must be in harmony with the crowd. It is from that mentality that the individual will rationalize or convince himself to agree with the majority and create a mentality of submission to the crowd.