Why are people easily provoked in the crowd & bull; hello healthy

It is still strong in the memory of how the '98 demonstrations and riots ravaged the country after Suharto announced his resignation from the presidency. Or, how the riot between taxi drivers who clashed with application-based transportation service drivers recently occurred, causing roadblocks and a large number of injured victims.

Whether it was a demonstration that led to large-scale riots, or a crowd of people who were busy taking the law into their own hands while bathing criminals in the act, no one knows for sure what triggered this devastating behavior. Is this the product of youth who simply want to claim their rights, or is it just pure radicalism?

The audience and the victims of the rioting will nevertheless draw personal conclusions to try to understand the reasons behind the mass ferocity. Is there a rational scientific point of view to understand what triggered the riots?

Crowd attraction

Crowd is something that always attracts attention. Just imagine, wherever you are, every time you see a large group of people joined in a crowd, you will definitely be interested in finding out what is going on, and joining the crowd. On the one hand, the crowd is seen as something unusual, something "contagious", even something scary. But at the same time, the crowd was also looked upon with awe and fascination.

Being part of a large group of people, be it at a football game or a rock concert, can be a unique experience. How many of us have unconsciously clapped our hands or shouted ridicule because those around us were doing the same thing, even though we didn't know what was really going on. This bizarre collective group behavior is studied in a field of social psychology known as 'crowd psychology'.

Theory 1: Crowd members tend not to be themselves

The most important point of crowd behavior, especially in rioting, is that it occurs spontaneously and is fundamentally unpredictable. According to this theory, when in a group, its members become anonymous, easily influenced, tend to be obedient and / or turn a blind eye to what other members are doing in the group. They will also seem to lose their identity, so that they unconsciously behave that is actually contrary to personal norms.

This is what makes a lot of people sucked into the masses and follow any ideas or emotions from the leader of the group, even if those emotions can be destructive. In a crowd, people simply imitate what they see without thinking.

Theory 2: Members of the crowd promote solidarity

The problem is, the basic ideas of the crowd psychology theory are quite outdated and difficult to be used as a benchmark in modern times. Historical and psychological research shows that in groups and crowds, members are generally not anonymous to one another, have not lost their identity, or lost control of their behavior. Instead, they usually act as a group entity or social identity.

The crowd acts in a pattern in such a way as to reflect culture and society; formed on collective understanding, norms and values, as well as ideology and social structure. As a result, crowd events always have patterns that reveal how people perceive their position in society, as well as their sense of right and wrong.

Contrary to the belief that the masses act blindly, the theory of Clifford Stott from the University of Liverpool, quoted from Live Science, classifies the collective behavior of a crowd as an Elaborated Social Identity Model, which states that each individual in the crowd still holds its personal values ​​and norms, and still thinks of itself. Even so, on top of their respective individual identities, they also develop an emergency social identity that includes group interests.

EP Thompson, an expert historian of crowd behavior theory, quoted in The Guardian, argues that in a world where minorities tend to be subordinate, unrest is a form of "collective bargaining". At least, according to the rioters, their problem has become the same problem for the majority, and therefore the majority (police or government) have been required to solve their previously neglected problem.

Riots usually occur when one group has a sense of solidarity about how they have been treated unfairly by another, and they see collective confrontation as the only way to make amends for the situation. Indeed, with groups, people become empowered to create social movements to reverse normal social relationships.

Theory 3: Crowd vs other people

In a crowd, the people can act on a set of group understandings, but the actions of each person will be interpreted in different ways by people outside the group.

When people outside this group have more power to interpret the crowd's actions (for example, demonstrators are seen by the police as separate from society, and pose a danger to social fabric) this can lead to the perpetrators involved in the crowd into an unimaginable situation. Moreover, the police were able to impose this understanding on the crowd through efforts to stop all demonstration activities at all costs, given the superior technological and communication resources of the police apparatus.

Because of their efforts to silence the action and because they are also seen as enemies of society and a potential danger, even demonstrators who initially carried out peaceful actions will begin to work together to fight what they see as oppression. Members of the masses felt threatened and reacted violently to preserve their group. In addition, as a result of having had the same experience at the hands of the police, separate small groups now see themselves as part of the general group, but with a more intense radical element of the group, and underlying motivations that may differ from the main group. . Some are politically motivated, some want to join the looting, while others just want to engage in destructive behavior for no good reason. So it is difficult to theorize about the same behavior, which is caused by very different impulses.

This extension of the group, together with the sense of solidarity that is expected and obtained from among the members of the group, causes a sense of self-empowerment and a desire to challenge the police. This challenge was seen by the police as an act of confirmation of their initial perceptions and, ultimately, causing them to increase control and power over the crowd. With this pattern, the severity of the riots will increase and be sustainable.

Social and economic background also matter

Stott points out that crowd behavior in riots is only one symptom of a major underlying problem. The mass looting and burning actions during the 1998 monetary crisis, for example, demonstrated public anger at economic imbalances or the lack of fair opportunities for society.

Simon Moore, a researcher with the Violence & Society Research Group at Cardiff University, Wales, argues that there is one determining factor that may unify all rioters, namely the perception that they come from a low status socially, economically and politically. In his study, Moore found that low economic status (more inadequate financially than other people in the same area) and not real poverty (defined as not being able to pay for the things you need) causes suffering. . Along with suffering, the low self-status in society also results in feelings of hostility. According to Moore, low status encourages stress, which is manifested in the form of aggression.