Chapter 17: Collective Behavior and Social Movement

     

   People within a society most of the time tend to behave in pretty similar ways, mainly because individuals usually tend to, or at least are expected to, follow certain norms society has. Many times individuals that have some kind of bond experience this phenomenon of behaving similar to each other, this is what scientists call collective behavior.

   Norms of behavior within a society are not always clear enough though. During these situations, people begin to follow norms which don’t quite exist but that they think are correct. Sociologist refers to these actions as collective behavior which is the relativity spontaneous social behavior that occurs when people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations. There are many forms of collective behavior. A crowd is a temporary gathering of people who are in close enough proximity to interact. A mob is an emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific destructive or violent goal. And finally a riot, which is a collection of people who erupt into generalized destructive behavior, the result of which is social disorder. Fear might trigger some collective behavior as well, some examples of collective behavior triggered by fear are the following. A panic is a spontaneous and uncoordinated group action to escape some perceived threat.  A moral panic occurs when people become fearful, often without reason, about behavior that appears to threaten society’s core value. Another collective behavior is mass hysteria which is an unfounded anxiety shared by people who can be scattered over a wide geographic area.

    Not all types collective behavior have fear, an example is fashion which refers to enthusiastic attachments among large numbers of people for particular styles of appearance or behavior.  Fads are ideas that a large number of people are attached to for a very short period of time. . A rumor is an unverified peace of information that is rapidly spread from one person to another. Another form of communication within members of a society is urban legends which are stories that teach a lesson and seem realistic but are untrue. Another collective behavior that depends on communication is public opinion, which refers to the collection of differing attitudes that members of a o public have about a particular issue. Propaganda, which is an organized deliberate attempt to shape public opinion, is also a form of communication within society’s members. Collectivism happens in every society, and it a very big concept that many sociologists try to explain, therefore there are many theories that try to explain this phenomenon. The contagion theory was developed by Gustave LeBon and it said that the hypnotic power to encourage people up their individuality and strong pull of a group. The emergent theory says that the people in a crowd face a situation in which traditional norms of behavior are not applied.  The value added theory predicts if collective behavior would occur and the direction it would take.

   Most social movements happen, or work to change any aspect of society. Reactionary movements are to revers current social trends. Another kind of social movements are conservative movements, they try to protect what they see as society’s prevailing values from change that they consider to be a threat to those values. Revisionary movements work to improve or revise some part of society through social change. Finally, revolutionary movements are a total and radical change of the structure. Just like with collectivism, many sociologists have tried to understand why these movements form, and once again just like collectivism, there are many theories to explain it. The relative deprivation theory states that people join social movements because they feel deprived relative to other people or groups with whom the identify. Modern sociologist believe that social movements can occur only if people are successful in resource mobilization. Resource mobilizations are the organizations and effective use of resources.  Since this is a very important factor, many sociologists developed the resource mobilization theory, which states that not even the most ill-treated group with the most just case will be able to bring about change without resources.

   Collective behavior is simply amazing, no matter if you don’t agree that this phenomenon happens, it does, unconsciously people know that they are expected to follow a determined behavior, and in order to fit in they do. In limited cases do individuals not agree with the collective behavior they must follow, and it’s those individuals that become leaders and initiate a social movement, perfect way to change a well established collective behavior in a society and reestablish unclear norms.