Mob Mentality Of Mob Behavior

One of the major causes individuals get caught up in mob mentality is because people feel pressured to execute the corrupt actions in order to be accepted in society. Mob mentality can trigger certain emotions to participate in terrible public events in which causes harm to others. In the 1920’s, a horrible incident occurred in Duluth Minnesota which will always be remembered in history.

Mob Mentality is strange behavior that is displayed when people are in a large group (Smith). People take part in these mobs because, when a group of people are emotional and angry about something, it takes very little for the crowd to break out in violence (Edmonds). In To Kill a Mockingbird mob mentality is apparent in the book. An example of mob mentality is, typically others will follow the initial rioter’s lead (Edmonds). This is shown in To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout guilts the mob into leaving and Mr. Cunningham tells the rest of the mob lets go and they follow right after him (Lee 206). Along with the Jim Crow laws and mob mentality another influence in To Kill a Mockingbird was the Scottsboro

“Mob mentality” refers to the idea that an individual reacts to a situation different from the way they would if they were in a group. The idea of “mob mentality” is displayed in the science fiction teleplay, “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street”, where aliens have supposedly been living with humans and the crowd starts turning against each other to find out who it is. In a place where everyone is turning on each other it is hard to put out your view, so you go along with everyone else to stay safe. Similarly, in “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” when everyone starting doubting each other people find it safer to follow the crowd. For example, in the story when Les Goodman’s car starts by itself one person starts asking question and people follow by

In an article titled, Mob Mentality, it describes the mob mentality occurring during a football game, the author states, “In the name of a sporting event, in protest of a wrong call, the customers threw bottles, trash, whatever they could grip in the direction of the officials. Jaguars wide receiver Jimmy Smith later said the players feared for their lives (Shelton 1)”. Those who attended the game were out of control because of the influence of others around them. If one person disagrees with a call and throws things at officials, other people will think it is ok for them to take similar actions. When everyone started throwing random objects around, the players were terrified for their lives. The inappropriate behaviors of the crowd can cause a player to not want to play or a fan to not want to attend games because the all the fun has been sucked out. Without a positive behavior from everyone, the whole point of the game is lost. Another example of individuals being affected by the loss of others individuality is from an article titled, Mob Mentality Denies a Person a Right to a Fair Trial. The writing focuses on how a people were not given a fair trial due to mob mentality during the Salem Witch Trials. The article mentions, “These normal townspeople, in a moral frenzy, made yet more and ever-wild accusations, until mob action and then murder ... cold-blooded murder of many innocent people (Pyatt 1)”. This quote describes how the normal townspeople were caught up in a mob, and took wild actions until someone would end up dead. In this period of time, the townspeople murdered many individuals who were accused of witchcraft. Although these individuals were accused, they never received a fair trial, meaning the mobs of townspeople were going around and murdering innocent people who did not deserve it. All these actions could lead people to believe trials are

The journey of life often times does not always run the intended course that one envisions. Depending on the choices made and the uncontrollable circumstances that an individual is exposed to, his or her character will reflect those instances. In the non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood,” by Truman Capote, the reader is introduced to Perry Smith and Dick Hickock who without any remorse murdered the Clutter family. Is it simply human nature to commit gruesome acts without feeling a sense of guilt? There is no definitive answer to this, but it is however clear that human beings are capable of both good and evil, and there is usually a cause to every effect. It therefore leaves one to wonder what was the driving force or motive behind Dick and Perry’s

It is often affirmed that as the most dominant species on planet earth, human beings essentially rule the way in which our world has evolved; we have cognitive abilities that allow us to explore a multitude of complex variables, utilize logic, formulate a wide range of choices, and act out our decisions. However, even as highly logical creatures, humans have the propensity to be influenced by the choices of others or information presented to them, form groups of like-minded individuals, and participate in behaviors they would likely not have undertaken on their own. This particular behavior has been coined the “mob mentality and under it, people appear to become mindless automatons that lack any ability to act on their own thoughts. While there are perfect examples of mob mentalities doing good, such as the pivotal march on Washington during the Civil rights movement of the 1960’s, to something as simple as the yearly gathering of like-minded individuals at the Burning Man Festival, there are far more insidious examples such as the Holocaust, the Salem Witch trials, and Bacon’s Rebellion. In the realm of human behavior, each of these “events” is representational of what psychology defines as a mob or herd mentality and this group behavior has been an intrinsic quality of human civilizations throughout history. As such, this writer believes that Bacon’s Rebellion is a prime example of the negative implications mob mentalities are capable of generating. However the

The brisk air fills the lungs of the students who shout, cheer, and sing in the bleachers of the sports stadium. One student starts the chant, as others follow, the next chanting louder than the first. It’s unlikely that these students would be yelling and singing the way they do if they were the only person doing it. This is mob mentality. The person starting this trend has a threshold of zero, because they didn’t need anyone to do it before they did, whoever is next has a threshold of one and the next, two and so on. Mob mentality is how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors and a threshold is how many people it takes for this influence to be adapted by their peers. Mob mentality can be seen in many ways in The Crucible and at Blue Valley West. Groups spreading the pressures of things like bullying, accusations, and clothing in order to fit in are all great examples of mob mentality.

He describes the motivating factor behind lynching by stating, “Whites almost always believed that mobs punished real transgressions and that the lust for vengeance played a prominent role in lynching.” (49) This further supports the thought process, that mobs acted in the name of their own perceived justice, which largely occurred in response to alleged sexual and murderous criminal acts, although trivial acts also started lynch mobs. Another motivating factor giving way to mob violence was the threat of black men raping white women, which was the worst offense possible. Moreover, the continuance of the racial hierarchy in the South, most importantly, was a necessary method to assert white dominance.

After reading and viewing the mob mentality pieces, I conclude that mobs were gruesome groups that were hard to stop when in the action. For Instance, in the NPR Radio Diaries, it talks about how a mob a lynched two of three boys and broke into a place station to get the last boy ( “ Strange Fruit: Anniversary of a Lynching” ). This shows that mobs were virtually unstoppable. They were not satisfied until everyone they wanted dead were dead. They were willing break into the holding cells and get in trouble or hurt just to have one more person dead. Another idea that supports this conclusion is from S.E. Smith’s article “ What is Mob Mentality? “, the article talks about about if some people get trampled when there is a lot of urgency or

In certain cases, people would follow others blindly into combat during times of war. This is mainly due to fear or trust; nevertheless, during the McCarthy Era and the Salem witch trials, people would follow the same principles. During WWII Master Sergeant Albert Blithe, a career soldier who had been a Private First Class with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division; he and other men from Easy Company jumped into occupied France as part of the massive Airborne invasion; however, when they landed, they found themselves lost. Blithe was joined by a number of other paratroopers who were also part of the mis-drops. They teamed up together and found the rest of Easy Company. This shows just how willingly some people are to follow others. No matter how people gain their power or how easily they take advantage of others, certain individuals will always find a way to do so. If they do gain this ability, the next step in mob hysteria would be to convict those who have been taken advantage

Recently, an L.A. Times article (dated 2/13/00) reviewed a new book entitled "Without Sanctuary", a collection of photographs from lynchings throughout America. During the course of the article, the author, Benjamin Schwarz, outlined some very interesting and disturbing facts related to this gruesome act of violence: Between 1882 and 1930, more than 3,000 people were lynched in the U.S., with approximately 80% of them taking place in the South. Though most people think only African Americans were victims of lynchings, during those years, about 25% were white. Data indicates that mobs in the West lynched 447 whites and 38 blacks; in the Midwest there were 181 white victims and 79 black; and in the South, people lynched 291 whites and 2,462

Many times, the men of the law were even involved in these mobs that would lynch and beat the accused suspect. In 1926 a mob took three colored people from a local jail, dragged them about a mile away, and then proceeded to shoot them to death. A couple days later, the Assistant Secretary wrote a letter to the Governor letting him know who all was involved in this mob incident. There were twenty-two names of people involved in this mob; this included the sheriff, his two deputies, local policemen, cousins of the Governor, and two members of the Grand Jury (which were investigating this lynching) (Aptheker 512-514). Now wonder that the whites got away with so much in court; most of the people involved with the lynchings were men of the law. Later on, the Aiken County Grand Jury failed to return and indictments of these publicly know mob members. If this story had happened the other way the results would have been different. If there was a black mob that went and killed three white people, the law would of prosecuted and put to death every single member of the black mob. This shows that there truly was a huge difference on the way the law viewed the human worth of whites and blacks. Lynchings were a very common and accepted practice during this time period. Most of the people lynched were black males. There had been 4951 lynchings and only 1438 of these people were white (White 610). Blacks were also

Far too often, one person shares an idea and then a domino effect takes place. Soon hundreds of people show up in a blurry rage. Mob mentality is a lot like cataracts. It clouds your vision and plays with your brain. Often times the person doesn’t fully understand what they are doing.

“Most of us seem convinced that crowds inhabit a psychological shadow land of primitive urges and unrestraint, where individuals are stripped of their identity and led unthinking to violent or irrational acts” (Mob Mentality, Michael Bond). Most people feel like they are just another person in the crowd, so no one will know who they are. In Lynchings of Duluth, a lady never knew her husband was on the cover page of the book until after he died, she noticed his face. He never said anything about being a part of the lynching. Many people were never identified and it’s possible for anyone to have ancestors that were part of a mob that they do not even know about.

Mr. Reploge, I agree with your point of view. Criminal behavior is a learned behavior, not inherited. Gabriel Tarde challenged the concept of the born criminal developed by Cesare Lombroso. He believed that one becomes a criminal through their environment, not birth. Group dynamics validate this theory. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making and criminal behaviors. It allows the principle of differential association to be examined through the rule of law.