The Crowd · Chapter
The Reasoning Power of Crowds explained
This chapter argues that crowds do not reason in a logical, critical manner.
What happens
This chapter argues that crowds do not reason in a logical, critical manner. Their reasoning is based on superficial associations and immediate generalizations, not on chains of logical argument. Crowds are influenced by evocative images and simple analogies, not by complex reasoning. The inability of crowds to reason correctly prevents them from discerning truth from error, and their judgments are forced upon them rather than arrived at through discussion.
Themes in this chapter
Irrationality and Credulity
Crowds are portrayed as incapable of logical reasoning, relying on superficial analogies and immediate generalizations, and lacking critical judgment.
Leadership and Suggestion
The chapter emphasizes that crowds are influenced not by reasoning but by orators who evoke images and use simple, suggestive arguments.
Characters to notice
- Crowds
The subject of the chapter, described as reasoning through superficial associations and generalizations, incapable of logical argumentation.
- The Speaker
The orator who influences crowds by evoking images and using simple analogies, rather than logical reasoning.
Key passages
“The mode of reasoning of crowds resembles that of the Eskimo who, knowing from experience that ice, a transparent body, melts in the mouth, concludes that glass, also a transparent body, should also melt in the mouth”
Crowds reason by false analogy, like assuming glass melts in the mouth because ice does, since both are transparent.
Illustrates the flawed associative reasoning of crowds.
“A chain of logical argumentation is totally incomprehensible to crowds, and for this reason it is permissible to say that they do not reason or that they reason falsely and are not to be influenced by reasoning.”
Crowds cannot follow logical arguments, so it is fair to say they do not reason at all or reason incorrectly, and cannot be persuaded by logic.
Summarizes the chapter's core thesis about crowd reasoning.
“An orator in intimate communication with a crowd can evoke images by which it will be seduced. If he is successful his object has been attained, and twenty volumes of harangues—always the outcome of reflection—are not worth the few phrases which appealed to the brains it was required to convince.”
A skilled speaker can sway a crowd by conjuring vivid images; a few such phrases are more effective than volumes of reasoned discourse.
Highlights the power of suggestive imagery over logical argument in influencing crowds.