Social psychology of the crowd in the works of foreign scientists of the late 19th - early 20th century

Abstract

The article examines the ideas about the socio-psychological characteristics of the crowd described in the works of foreign scientists of the late 19th - early 20th century, analyzes the works on this topic by S. Sighele, G. Le Bon, G. Tarde, O. Cabanes and L. Nass. In the course of the study, a generalized picture of the views of these specialists on the phenomenology of large social groups was obtained. In general, it is recognized that the crowd is impulsive, unstable, irresponsible, susceptible to suggestions, gullible, intolerant and conservative. The behavior of an individual in a group differs from his behavior outside it, and the average intelligence of the crowd is generally lower than the individual. Of particular interest in the works under consideration is the criminal crowd, in which all the features of large social groups are expressed to an extreme degree. Its features are the susceptibility to imitation and suggestion, large numbers, moral intoxication, actualization of instinct and the specific, mostly marginal composition of the crowd. The merging of individuals into a crowd occurs with the help of a community of ideas and beliefs, through suggestion and imitation. The results obtained in the course of the study can be used both in social and political psychology and in historical science, where the scope of their application is outlined by the boundaries of mass phenomena of the past, present and future.