The Crowd · Chapter
General Characteristics of Crowds—Psychological Law of Their Mental Unity explained
This chapter defines the psychological crowd as distinct from a mere gathering of individuals.
What happens
This chapter defines the psychological crowd as distinct from a mere gathering of individuals. Under certain conditions, individuals lose their conscious personality and form a collective mind with new characteristics, governed by unconscious motives. The crowd is intellectually inferior to the isolated individual but can be morally superior or inferior depending on suggestion. Examples include the French Convention and the Crusades.
Themes in this chapter
Psychology of Crowds
Defines the psychological crowd and its collective mind, distinct from isolated individuals.
Unconscious Motivation
Emphasizes the preponderant role of unconscious phenomena in crowd behavior and individual conduct.
Irrationality and Credulity
Crowds are intellectually inferior and act on suggestion, often unconsciously.
Morality of Crowds
Crowds can be either criminal or heroic, depending on the nature of the suggestion.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator defines the psychological crowd and its characteristics.
- Herbert Spencer
Mentioned as a philosopher whose opinion on crowds is contradicted.
- Napoleon
Cited as finding docile servants among former members of the French Convention.
- Crowds
The central subject of the chapter, described as forming a collective mind.
Key passages
“Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it.”
Only under specific conditions does a gathering of people develop entirely new traits not found in the individuals alone.
Defines the emergence of a psychological crowd.
“The crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual, but that, from the point of view of feelings and of the acts these feelings provoke, the crowd may, according to circumstances, be better or worse than the individual.”
Crowds are less intelligent than individuals, but their emotional actions can be either more noble or more base.
Highlights the dual moral potential of crowds.
“It is crowds rather than isolated individuals that may be induced to run the risk of death to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea.”
Crowds, not individuals, are willing to die for beliefs or ideas.
Illustrates heroic crowd behavior.