“We are more animals than we imagine”: how ordinary people turn into marauders

The new scandal involving the murder of an African American by a policeman is reminiscent of another remake of a story that has been repeated more than once in this country. The use of force in the detention of a black man again led to tragedy. The detainee – or rather, the victim – died, and this event had the effect of a match lit at a powder warehouse.

The peaceful protest of friends and relatives of the murdered person turns into a rally, which gathers more and more people. The availability of information on social networks and emotional reposts with appeals “warm up” the crowd. Armed clashes, looting and vandalism begin. The situation gets out of control, the authorities decide to send troops into the city. Protest movements also arise in other settlements.

How does a peaceful protest of those mourning the loss of loved ones turn into an armed uprising and pogroms?

“The riots that we are now witnessing are taking place against the backdrop of a pandemic, against the backdrop of a long stay of a huge number of people in a situation of quarantine or self-isolation,” says psychotherapist Vladimir Dashevsky. “The time is very difficult, many of these people have lost their money, their jobs. Driven to despair, and even forced to stay at home for a long time. Naturally, their needs are not met.

For several months, social tension has accumulated in society – a spring effect has been created. And one reason was enough for emotions to flare up like gunpowder.

Note that similar incidents occur quite often in America. And yet these incidents do not escalate as they do now, with riots flaring up one after another in many US cities. People are filled with righteous anger, they want to relieve tension. And the classic way to release tension is aggression.”

What are the laws of the crowd?

“First of all, this is total dehumanization – a person who is in a crowd partly ceases to be a person as we know him, that is, a reasonable person – homo sapiens. More ancient structures that are evolutionarily embedded in us are turned on,” continues Vladimir Dashevsky. “We are talking about the so-called “emotional brain”. Paleocortex – ancient structures in the cerebral cortex that determine the behavior of animals rather than humans. Subjectively, this is a rather pleasant feeling of releasing control.

The crowd is anonymous. And despite the fact that now there are cameras on every corner, we remember that all these people are wearing masks and it is quite difficult to identify them. Just anonymity gives this feeling of belonging to something more, to the pack. And it turns out that people turn into a kind of formation – in a certain sense, without a head. Indeed, the crowd is like the “Headless Horseman”, exclusively with emotions.

This is similar to the behavior of fish: where one looks, the whole flock instantly turns in that direction. There is no need to talk about a sense of responsibility here.

Social psychologists Gustave Lebon, Charles Tart, Serge Moscovici investigated the behavior of the crowd and identified certain laws: contagion, imitation, and so on. It must be understood that this behavior is unconscious.

The crowd is most often guided by unconscious attitudes and very ancient instincts. Long, complex thoughts are not held. Usually one idea prevails – for example, to beat and crush.

The last words of the deceased in Minneapolis: “I can’t breathe” – have become a slogan that is pronounced and painted by completely different people. The protesters quickly form a new identity – they have a common enemy and a common idea. Thanks to this identity, they already act as a single whole.

Social psychologist Naomi Ellemers conducted a laboratory experiment in which participants were divided into groups of higher and lower status. It turned out that when it is impossible to “rise” to another level, people begin to identify themselves more strongly with their lower status group and do everything possible to overthrow the “top”.

Element or controlled process?

“The fact that pogroms, looting and so on are taking place is, in a sense, a good indicator,” Dashevsky believes. “It’s about crowd control.

The fact that people began to rob is good in the sense that they did not kill. The crowd, enveloped in righteous anger, thirsts for blood, murder. And the redirection of this energy to robberies means: perhaps there is someone there who controls this mass. And, probably, there are some agents of influence – people from government agencies or someone else. If you choose between two evils, robbery is better than murder.

Lebon said that the crowd is like leaves that are lifted up by a hurricane and blown in different directions, and then fall to the ground. And it really is an element. It is unlikely that a hurricane has any will – rather, on the contrary.

But inside the hurricane there can be “breakers”, currents. And in this mass there appear leaders who have the ability to keep their minds in the crowd, can gather and direct it for a short time. With an aggressive crowd, it seems to me that this happens quite often, and perhaps there are people who benefit from these very looting.

If you carefully watch the video about what is happening in America, you will notice that the recent actions in Los Angeles or New York are quite well organized. Some people are breaking bars, while others are taking TVs and other goods out of stores – it is obvious that there are those who benefit from this, who fish in troubled waters. What is happening is really terrible, but it does not seem like some kind of secret plan.

Loss of human form

Sitting at home and looking at what is happening, many are wondering: how does a simple, ordinary person with an average level of dissatisfaction with life at one moment turn into a marauder, destroying windows and stealing things?

“It happens very easily,” continues Vladimir Dashevsky. – Fast, at the click of a finger. Have you ever gone to football? I went. And I can tell by myself how instantly the superstructure called culture flies, which, in fact, is very, very thin, like the thin gray matter of the brain.

The ethical, moral principles that we have acquired in society are instantly lost. Unconscious motives are much stronger. We are much more animals than we realize.

In football, let’s say you support a team. And this is what happens automatically: even while you are standing by the subway with the attributes of a fan, waiting for your friends, all the people in the colors of the other team seem to you to be some kind of freaks – ugly, stupid, stupid and aggressive. And I really want to throw out aggression – to fight. I have noticed this myself several times.

Thank God, I still have a critical eye that allows me to track this and have fun with the fact that this is happening. But I also feel a beast in me that wants to destroy, break.

This is proven by science – remember the experiments of Stanley Milgram, when a person endowed with the power of an experimenter was allowed to hurt another. And educated, intelligent people showed unreasonable, but “allowed” cruelty.

The crowd also “gives permission” – for aggression, for ceasing to be a person. Because when you are a part of something huge, a grain of sand in the sand, you kind of cease to be Vanya, Petya, Seryozha, Natasha, Lena – anyone. You become part of the whole. This is, of course, a very powerful effect.

Losing conscious control can be very pleasurable. Something similar occurs not only in a negative context. For example, when people pray together, make certain ritual movements to the beat, dance, they enter a similar hypnotic trance. This is the effect of anonymization, feeling like a part of a larger one, and lightness, euphoria, a feeling of strength from belonging to something huge.