@shaggyjebus Said Perhaps when people get into larger groups, it's not simply that they decide to do bad things as a group. Meaning, maybe people do not only "go with the flow" when with a mob of people.
Could people genuinely want to be bad and only have the confidence when in a large group of people? With a large number of people, blame can be spread pretty thinly, so if the group gets caught, the consequences will seem not quite as harsh as when alone. Also, group psychology can be used to describe the behavior.
I am sure that sometimes people do participate in things only because of the group, but could there not also be people who do bad things only with a group because that is the only way they can do those things? The group could give confidence to a person, enough so for a person to finally overcome any fears and do whatever the person is feeling inside.
this group mentality is also often used to justify/explain some pretty vile behaviours - used to hear this story about a violent assault in the street in New York where dozens of people stood around and did nothing to help - "well if he's not helping, why shoould I?" - it;s that shared resposibility/culpability thing that in actual fact absolves us of responsibility - if we're in a large group we don't have to take individual responsibility for our actions or accept full responsibility for the act - scary really, the idea that folks would seek this type of situation in order to slake their bloodlust (or whatever)
inclusion is a powerful thing - there are many people who would do some extraordinary things to get it
Sep 19, 2006 @ 02:14:12
