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Zimbardo's De-Individuation Theory

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De-individuation is a process by which individuals immerses into a group to the extent that they lose self-awareness and accountability for their own actions. This essay will evaluate the theory of de-individuation an explanations it offers for rioting behavior.

According to Gustav Le Bon’s theory of crowd behavior individuals in a crowd setting experience psychological transformation the result of which is the loss of self and emergence of a ‘group mind’. Crowd members lose individual rationality and experience a decrease in inhibition of normative behavior leading them to act in an impulsive, primitive and aggressive manner. Through group immersion and loss of individuality, a sense of anonymity emerges and personal responsibility diminishes. …show more content…

bank robbers are anonymous but highly aware of their individual culpability if they are caught) (Dixon a& Mahendran, 2012, p 6-7).

In summary, the de-individuation theory argues that environmental conditions or antecedents (arousal, anonymity, group unity) lead to de-individuation (reduced self awareness, accountability and decreased concern for social evaluation) which leads to heightened responsiveness to immediate environment, impulsive, irrational and aggressive behavior.

Anonymity seems to be the key element of de-individuation theory and figures in many studies on crowd behavior that show positive correlation between anonymity and increased …show more content…

Half of each group were anonymous and the other half wore name tags. Anonymous hooded participants were slightly more aggressive than others; Anonymous nurse participants were significantly less aggressive than other participants. This suggests that anonymity might lead to more conformity to group norms, rather than disregard for social rules and negative behavior disorganized (Dixon & Mahendran, 2012, p 10).

De-individuation theory has been studied only in societies with strong individualistic values. It is questionable how applicable the theory might be to non-western societies that accentuate collectivistic values over individualistic ones since de-individuation suggests that being part of a crowd removes one’s sense of separation from others, personal rationality and individuality.

Social Identity Theory (SIT) in contrast suggests that rather than losing our sense of self in crowds, we assume social identitiesa and consciously choose to behave in ways that conform to the identity of the group (Dixon & Mahendran, 2012, p 13) which is supported by Johnson’s and Downing’s mentioned

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