Crowds and Conformity

I believe that in some ways individuals in our society have and do depend too much on the opinions and acceptance of others. Some people will join a crowd or group simply to seek comfort in numbers. They will conform to the thoughts and ideas of the crowd in order to feel safe and included. It is human nature to want to be accepted by others however should we have to sacrifice our own individuality and intelligence in order to that?

According to LeBon, when individuals become a part of a crowd that has power and numbers they get a feeling of invincibility and the opinions of the group become contagious. Even if the individual did not initially agree with the opinions of the group, they eventually conform.

For example, in Germany, during World War Two, many Germans/ Europeans joined the Nazis because they were in power and had large a following. They didn’t necessarily agree with the views, but the speeches given by the leaders were very convincing and made the message quite contagious. Individuals committed horrible acts of violence, even when it was not in their nature, simply to conform to the mentality of the crowd. This shows the impact of communication and persuasion on a general population, and how powerful the need to conform really is.
(view two blog entries above)

In the movie “Mean Girls” the girls in the “plastics” clique join the group to have friends and to be popular. They want to be a part of the “in crowd”. They don’t necessarily agree with the rules of the group (you can hear hostility in Gretchen’s voice in the video when she talks about dating) but they follow along anyway in order to feel included, to find power, and to stay within their comfort zones. Eventually, the rules of the group are so contagious that the girls that didn’t like them in the first place, enforce them, by shunning a member due to a fashion mistake.

(view the blog entry above)

I believe that we must somehow find a balance between absolute obedience to a crowd and our own personal identity. We need to have social networks in order to have a certain level of happiness; however they should not be our only source of happiness. We should be strong enough to have our own opinions without a huge mob to back us up, and any productive group of the world should be open to new ideas and opinions in order to allow progression.

Work Cited
-Dr. Sévigny's Lecture/ Lecture notes "Lecture 12"
Lecture Notes were based on:
LeBon, Gustav "General Characteristics of Crowds- Psycological Law of Their Mental Utility", Sévigny, Alexandre p121-125
LeBon, Gustav "The Ideas, Reasoning Power and Imagination of Crowds", p127-131
Introduction to Communications. Kendalll/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006

-You Tube. August 18th 2006. You Tube, Inc. October 27th 2006. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qot4_GTluUs

-You Tube. August 1st 2006. You Tube, Inc. October 27th 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-LwttN-zbk&mode=related&search=