Collective action is not always organized, but it should be able to arouse the interest of a relatively large number of people. Collective behavior means relatively spontaneous and unstructured behavior, carried out by a large number of individuals, who react to a certain event, problem or situation.
The most common forms of collective behavior are: crowds, riots, panics, riots, disastrous behaviors, rumors, collective hysteria and fashion fevers. Some of these types of behavior – crowds, riots and disastrous behaviors – involve people who are usually in the presence of others and who are somehow interacting. These are called collectivities located. Other forms of collective behavior – rumors, collective hysteria, moral panics and fashion fevers – involve people who are not necessarily in the presence of others. They may even be in different countries. However, they share certain beliefs and interests. Some examples of collective behavior are: a crowd that cheers for a team during a football game, a group of people who come together to attend a public speech or the collective interest of people in a newly launched product.
A crowd is a large number of people who come together and react simultaneously to an event or phenomenon. For example, a crowd can gather to attend a demonstration. There are several theories about crowd behavior. They will be covered in this class.
A riot is an outbreak of violence, relatively spontaneous, involving a large number of people. There were riots in Brazil after the soccer team was defeated by Germany 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup. Crowds burned buses and committed acts of vandalism in several cities in the country.
The behavior from disasters means how people behave during and after a disaster. For example, after a natural disaster, many people can take to the streets to help victims.
Rumors, mass hysteria and moral panics are often caused by false beliefs and perceptions and by distortion of the truth. A rumor is a story based on unreliable sources, which is passed on from one person to another. In most cases, a rumor is a lie or, at the very least, an exaggeration. Gossip is rumored about certain individuals and usually concerns their personal lives. Celebrities are often the biggest victims of rumors and gossip.
Collective hysteria refers to intense and widespread fear about false danger. It is worth noting that such a phenomenon is rare.
In sociology, moral panic is a concept similar to that of mass hysteria. Moral panic means widespread anxiety about an alleged threat to the moral order, which is false or exaggerated. Such a phenomenon occurs when a large number of people believe that there is a great evil threatening the well-being of society. This fear is often unfounded or exaggerated: people react disproportionately to some danger or problem. For example, in the 1960s, there was concern in the United States that rock music would lead to a loss of morality and promiscuity.
A fad is a relatively insignificant activity or product that becomes popular for a period of time. A mania is a temporary activity that attracts obsessive enthusiasm on the part of a relatively small group of people.
Theories of Collective Behavior
Several theories have been put forward by Sociology to explain collective behavior, particularly its violent manifestations.
Crowds have become a day-to-day phenomenon. They are present at sporting events, music concerts, shopping malls and amusement parks. The crowd behavior is the way the people who make a crowd behave. Several theories explain the behavior of crowds: the Contagion Theory, the Convergence Theory and the Emerging Norm Theory.
The contagion theory states that crowds influence people to act in a certain way – carrying some sort of hypnotic effect on people who are part of them. Such hypnotic influence added to the feeling of anonymity – due to the presence of many people – can lead the individual to act irrationally and excessively emotionally.
As we have studied above, Contagion Theory states that crowds lead people to act in a certain way. The Theory of Convergence says the reverse. According to this theory, people who want to act in a certain way come together to form crowds. Thus, the behavior of a crowd reflects the beliefs and intentions that individuals share before joining it.
The Theory of the Standard Emerging states that people do not know exactly how to act when they start to engage in acts of collective behavior. Gradually, they define their form of behavior, which is guided by social order and rationality.
Social movements
Social movements are one of the main forms of collective behavior.
While factors such as technology, people, the environment and racial inequality can cause social change, it is only when members of a society organize themselves that real social change can occur. A social movement can be defined as a collective and organized effort to promote or prevent changes.
Social movements are organized responses to a social, economic or political situation. Groups that feel excluded and wronged and that do not have access to channels of power organize social movements to seek satisfactory solutions to their demands.
The aim of a social movement is to promote changes in the values, norms and ideologies of a system in existence. Such changes can be partial or total. An important element of social movements, which distinguish them from other collective behaviors, is that they have an ideology.
A social movement is organized: it can use violent or peaceful, democratic or authoritarian means to achieve its goals. Social movements have a cycle of existence: origin, maturity and culmination.
Social movements can affect values and beliefs and can even influence a country’s culture: music, literature and even fashion. Norms of behavior develop as people become part of a social movement. The movement may require its members to dress in a certain way, boycott certain products, pay fees, participate in marches or rallies, recruit new members, etc.
For a social movement to succeed, its leaders need to make their followers aware that they are being oppressed. For example, during the 1960s and 1970s, feminist leaders convinced women that they were experiencing discrimination in the labor market, in educational institutions and even in the home.
Regardless of where they occur, social movements can drastically influence a society. When individuals and groups of people – civil rights activists and other visionaries, for example – breach traditional boundaries, they can cause major changes in social structures and policies. Even when the objectives of a social movement are not achieved, they affect public opinion. In certain cases, changing the way people think about certain issues is a gradual process.
People are more willing to participate in social movements when they are encouraged to do so by friends, acquaintances and family. This recruitment process is necessary for the existence of a social movement, as most of them cannot succeed if they fail to attract enough people.
In the modern era, social movements use electronic and technological means to recruit people and to coordinate and publicize their activities.
Social scientists show great interest in studying the reasons that lead to the rise of social movements. What makes people organize and fight for change? Sociologists have developed two theories to explain why people mobilize to promote change: relative deprivation and resource mobilization .
Relative Deprivation
When members of a society are dissatisfied or frustrated with their social, economic or political situation, they crave change. Relative deprivation refers to the negative perception and discontent that arises because a group of people believe they have been deprived of their rights. Relative deprivation occurs when people feel they have not received their fair share – that other people have benefited and they have not. For example: a middle class family may experience relative deprivation when comparing their quality of life to that of an upper class family.
For social discontent to become a social movement, it is necessary for members of society to feel that they deserve more: more wealth, power or influence. It is also necessary that dissatisfied people come to the conclusion that they will not be able to achieve their goals by conventional means, even if, in reality, this is possible. To promote change, the dissatisfied group will consider organizing a social movement if they believe that collective action will help their cause.
There are several criticisms of the relative deprivation theory. First, some sociologists point out that feelings of deprivation do not necessarily cause people to act. At the same time, people do not have to feel deprivation to act. Furthermore, this theory does not answer the question: why are it just some perceptions of deprivation that cause people to act? Discontent may be a fundamental element of social movements and collective behavior, but it does not always lead to action. For example, many people believe that riots occur in Brazilian prisons due to the terrible living conditions. However, there are prisons where prisoners live subhumanly, and yet there are no riots.
Resource mobilization
Resource mobilization means the way in which social movements mobilize the population’s resources – money, time, influence, etc. – and use them to take effective political action. The effectiveness and success of a movement depends a lot on how well its resources are used.
Members of a social movement often follow a charismatic leader, who mobilizes people for a cause. However, when the leader loses charisma or is replaced by a less charismatic person, the social movement can collapse. Other movements that do not depend on a leader’s charisma – democratic movements, for example – usually last longer, as they are better organized.
Critics say that such a theory does not take into account how the forces of opposition and resistance influence the actions and direction taken by social movements.
Political opportunity theory
According to the theory of political opportunity , a social movement is more likely to emerge and succeed if the government against which it protests is weakened. Social movements arise when a repressive government becomes more democratic or is weakened by a crisis – financial, political, etc. When such situations arise, disaffected people realize that political action is more likely to be successful. This convinces them to act.
Types of social movements
Sociologists identify various types of social movements, each according to its nature and the degree of change it seeks.
Reform movements are organized to carry out reforms in certain areas of the government. These movements seek limited but significant changes in certain aspects of a country’s political, economic or social system. Examples: the abolitionist movement, the feminist movement, the gay rights movement and the environment movement.
Revolutionary movements , on the other hand, aim to do more than just change certain aspects of a system. The leaders of such movements express their extreme dissatisfaction with the social order and seek radical changes. They struggle to change the entire existing structure and to overthrow the government. They aim to create a new type of government and, in some cases, even to change the people’s way of life. Revolutionary movements often employ violence, sooner or later. Examples: the Protestant Reformation and the Communist Revolution in China, Russia and Cuba.
Another type of political movement is the reactionary or regressive movement . Such movements aim to reverse social changes. They highlight the importance and greatness of traditional values, ideologies and institutions. They also criticize social changes that have occurred rapidly. The anti-abortion movement serves as an example of a reactionary movement. It emerged in the United States after the Supreme Court legalized most abortions, through the precedent Roe vs. Wade , which occurred in 1973. The anti-abortion movement seeks to limit or even prohibit such practice in the United States.
Two other types of movements are self – help and religious . People who try to improve certain aspects of their personal lives participate in self-help movements. Examples of such movements are Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers. Religious movements aim to strengthen the religious beliefs of its members and to convert people to their faith.
The impact of social movements
There are many examples of profound changes that have taken place throughout history thanks to social movements. The abolitionist movement exposed the evils of slavery and fostered the people’s aversion to such practice. Movements in favor of labor rights obtained benefits such as the minimum wage, the right to paid holidays, the right to a safe working environment, the right to strike, etc.
In the United States, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s ended racial segregation in the southern region of the country. The movement against the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s fostered public opposition to the war, which led to the end of the conflict.
Both the contemporary feminist movement and the pro-gay movement achieved achievements for women and gay men, respectively. For example, the gay rights movement has won legal, political and cultural victories: in several countries, such as Brazil, gay marriage has been legalized. Another contemporary movement is the ecological movement, which has also achieved achievements: the government has taken steps to reduce the various types of pollution.
On the other hand, fundamentalist religious movements are growing all over the world. This phenomenon is a reaction to major cultural changes.
