Deindividuation-Aggression

Deindividuation

1. Le Bon

   • Recognised how behaviour changes in groups
   • People become aggressive in anonymous groups because there is a shared responsibility

2. Diener

   • Self awareness is blocked by environmental events
   • Critical factors such as feelings of annoymity leads to reduced self awareness which leads to deindividuation
   • Trick or treat
     • Observed 700+ children trick or treating
     • A friend of the researcher had a bowl of sweets labelled 'take one'
     • Some children were asked their name and where they live, others were not asked anything
     • The friend went to answer the phone and an observer recorded how many sweets were taken
     • 57% of Children in an anonymous group stole and only 21% stole in a non anonymous group
       • This percentage was lower with individuals
     • A high percentage didn't steal-being in a group doesn't always cause aggressive behaviour

3. Prentice-Dunn and Rogers

   • There are two types of self awareness:
     • Private self awareness: Thoughts values and internal standards
       • Both types of awareness can lead to aggression but only private self awareness leads to deindividuation
     • Public self awareness: Impression you are presenting to others

4. Zimbardo

   • Stanford prison experiment
     • Participants became a prison guard or a prisoner
     • Prison guards acted violently and dominant
     • Prisoners became obedient, signing letters with their identification number
     • Suggests aggression is more about systems and less on individuals
     • Ethical considerations such as psychological harm
   • Lab coat experiment
     • Millgram style experiment with female students
     • Participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to another student
     • Half of the students wore lab coats with hoods covering their faces and half of the students wore normal clothes with name tags
     • Hooded participants gave twice as much shock
       • This suggests that when people are unidentifiable they are more likely to act aggressively
     • Demand characteristics-because the participants were dressed as the KKK they might have felt pressured to act in a certain way
     • Laboratory experiment is an artificial setting
     • Age biased because they are all students and gender biased because they are all female