PSYA3 Aggression - De-Individuation

Social Psychological Explanations: De-Individuation 

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- Hogg + Vaughan (2008) ‘a process whereby people lose their sense of socialised individual identity and engage in unsocialised often anti-social behaviours’

- people refrain from aggressive behaviour, don’t want to be indentified + belong to societies with strong norms against aggressive behaviour – will be judged

- social norms usually inhibit antisocial behaviour, inhibitions removed when deindividuated

- conditions that increase anonymity e.g. large crowds weaken barriers to antisocial behaviour

- Zimbardo: being a part of a crowd can diminish awareness of own individuality, the larger the group the greater the anonymity

- when people become faceless and anonymous may enter de-individuated state where behaviour is based on primitive urges + do not conform to society’s norms

-Mullen (1986) analysed newspaper cuttings of 60 lynchings in US. Found that the more people in the mob the greater the savagery.

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 ✓ Zimbardo: lab experiment, groups of 4 female undergrads deliver shocks to another student as ‘aid’ to learning PPS in 2 conditions, 1. Individuated state: pps wore normal clothing +…