Psychologists are aware that the psychology of a crowd differs from that of the separate individuals composing that crowd. There is a crowd of separate individuals, and a composite crowd in which the emotional natures of the units seem to blend and fuse.
The change arises from the influence of earnest attention, or deep emotional appeals, or common interest. When this change occurs, the crowd becomes a composite individual whose intelligence and emotional control is little above that of its weakest member .... The predominant characteristics
of this "composite-mindedness" of a crowd are the evidences of extreme suggestibility, response to appeals of emotion, vivid imagination, and action arising from imitation ....
Diall, in his Psychology of the Aggregate Mind of an Audience, holds that the mind of an assemblage listening to a powerful speaker undergoes a curious process called "fusion;' by which the individuals in the audience, losing their personal traits for the time being ... are reduced, as it were, to a single
individual, whose characteristics are those of an impulsive youth, imbued in general with high ideals, but lacking in reasoning power and will. Tarde, the French psychologist,
advances similar views.
Professor Joseph Jastrow, in his Fact and Fable in Psychology, says:
" ... The conjurer finds it easy to perform to a large audience, because, among other reasons, it is easier to arouse their admiration and sympathy, easier to make them forget themselves and enter into the uncritical spirit of wonderland. It would seem that in some respects the critical tone
of an assembly, like the strength of a chain, is that of its weakest member."
Professor [Gustave] Le Bon, in his The Crowd, says: "The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes .... The most careful observations seem to prove that an individual immerged for some length
of time in a crowd in action soon finds himself in a special state, which most resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself .... The conscious
personality has entirely vanished, will and discernment are lost. All feelings and thoughts are bent in the direction determined by the hypnotizer ....
An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.
Professor [Frederick Morgan] Davenport, in his book Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals, says:
"The mind of the crowd is strangely like that of primitive man. Most of the people in it may be far from primitive in emotion, in thought, in character; nevertheless, the result tends always to be the same. Stimulation immediately begets action. Reason is in abeyance. The cool, rational speaker
has little chance beside the skillful emotional orator. The crowd thinks in images, and speech must take this form to be accessible to it .... The crowd is united and governed by emotion rather than by
reason ...
In the revival, the person giving the suggestions has the advantage of breaking down the resistance of his audience by arousing their sentiments and emotions.
The element of fear is also invoked in the revival .... The fear of a sudden death in an unconverted condition is held over the audience.
The change arises from the influence of earnest attention, or deep emotional appeals, or common interest. When this change occurs, the crowd becomes a composite individual whose intelligence and emotional control is little above that of its weakest member .... The predominant characteristics
of this "composite-mindedness" of a crowd are the evidences of extreme suggestibility, response to appeals of emotion, vivid imagination, and action arising from imitation ....
Diall, in his Psychology of the Aggregate Mind of an Audience, holds that the mind of an assemblage listening to a powerful speaker undergoes a curious process called "fusion;' by which the individuals in the audience, losing their personal traits for the time being ... are reduced, as it were, to a single
individual, whose characteristics are those of an impulsive youth, imbued in general with high ideals, but lacking in reasoning power and will. Tarde, the French psychologist,
advances similar views.
Professor Joseph Jastrow, in his Fact and Fable in Psychology, says:
" ... The conjurer finds it easy to perform to a large audience, because, among other reasons, it is easier to arouse their admiration and sympathy, easier to make them forget themselves and enter into the uncritical spirit of wonderland. It would seem that in some respects the critical tone
of an assembly, like the strength of a chain, is that of its weakest member."
Professor [Gustave] Le Bon, in his The Crowd, says: "The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes .... The most careful observations seem to prove that an individual immerged for some length
of time in a crowd in action soon finds himself in a special state, which most resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself .... The conscious
personality has entirely vanished, will and discernment are lost. All feelings and thoughts are bent in the direction determined by the hypnotizer ....
An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.
Professor [Frederick Morgan] Davenport, in his book Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals, says:
"The mind of the crowd is strangely like that of primitive man. Most of the people in it may be far from primitive in emotion, in thought, in character; nevertheless, the result tends always to be the same. Stimulation immediately begets action. Reason is in abeyance. The cool, rational speaker
has little chance beside the skillful emotional orator. The crowd thinks in images, and speech must take this form to be accessible to it .... The crowd is united and governed by emotion rather than by
reason ...
T IS A CHARACTERISTIC OF
ALL MOVEMENTS AND CRUSADES
THAT THE PSYCHOPATHIC ELEMENT
RISES TO THE TOP.
-Robert Lindner
Human beings, in times of panic, fright, or deep emotion of any kind, manifest the imitative tendency of sheep, and the tendency of cattle and horses to "stampede" under imitation.
The element of fear is also invoked in the revival .... The fear of a sudden death in an unconverted condition is held over the audience.
WE MUST RESPECT THE
OTHER FELLOW'S RELIGION,
BUT ONLY IN THE SENSE AND
TO THE EXTENT THAT WE
RESPECT HIS THEORY THAT
HIS WIFE IS BEAUTIFUL AND
HIS CHILDREN SMART.
-H. L. Mencken
APPLY CONCENTRATION TO THE LAWS OF SUCCESS
The one thing over which you have complete control is your thoughts. You may not be able to determine every circumstance of your life, but with Concentration and Accurate Thinking you can determine your reaction to those circumstances.
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