In crowds individuals lose critical judgement, become suggestible, and act in ways none would alone.
Foundational and largely superseded. Modern crowd research finds crowds far more norm-governed and purposive than Le Bon claimed, and his account was itself an anxious reaction to the Paris Commune.
In practice
- A football crowd that empties a stadium in nine minutes without instruction is following norms rather than losing its reason.
- Le Bon's own context is worth knowing — the book was an anxious reaction to the Paris Commune, and the "crowd" he described was a political adversary.
- Standing
- Foundational and largely superseded; modern work finds crowds far more norm-governed than Le Bon claimed.
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Theories of the mind, from the lab to the bookshop