The belief that in an emergency people panic, yielding to mob psychology is probably wrong

The phrase "crowd psychology" often attach a negative connotation. There is even a saying: "herd mentality creates killers." The crowd and the general mood of the crowd often the catalyst that turns the simple act of civil protest into an uncontrollable riot. Psychologists explain that when you are in a crowd, you are more likely to start to behave in the same way as the others, in spite of your personal beliefs. The behavior of others may be different - for example, someone versed in the situation immediately and take this opportunity to commit robbery, as a result, will be to blame for the crowd. In cases where under the guise of the crowd committed indiscretions, abound.

Nevertheless, in 2005, the sociologists David and Ronald Wohlstein Shvengruber concluded that the widespread idea of ​​the crowd as a potentially dangerous phenomenon is unreasonable. They made a list of seven "myths" about the crowd, who had no empirical support and rejected by scientists because of insolvency. Later this list psychologist Jeremy Dean analyzed. He acknowledged the findings and Shvengrubera Wohlstein quite logical and provided its own counter relative irrationality of the crowd.

Thus, one type of irrational behavior attributed to the crowd is panic. Faced with the danger, people suddenly begin to behave like selfish animals ran away and trampling the fallen. Panic spread through the crowd like wildfire: rapidly and uncontrollably. A lot of research on how people behave in emergencies, do not support this idea. An example is 9/11 in the United States - people quickly and orderly evacuated through underground tunnels after the start of a terrorist attack. On that day, I managed to save many lives simply because people resist panic. Dean believes that the desire to fight to panic - this is normal behavior for a man. Therefore, psychologists should certainly reconsider its position in this respect, at least for the fact that the argument is "panicked crowd" ceased to be an excuse for the commission of unlawful acts.

via factroom.ru