A Lesson in Social Psychology
April 6, 2021, marked the 3-month anniversary of the “storming of the Capitol incident. ” I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the incident in the context of one of my favorite subfields in psychology, Social Psychology!
This post will give you a brief introduction to social psychology by answering the what, why, and how of social psychology as a science and will discuss how the Capitol building events on January 6, 2021, fit into the subject of social psychology. I love social psychology. It is the epitome of the study of human behavior.
What is Social Psychology?
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, relate to, and influence other people. Social psychologists seek to understand how others affect our thoughts and feelings by using scientific methods to examine social behavior systematically. Social psychology focuses on the study of individuals in the context of groups. For example, “What are the effects of people’s levels of self-esteem on their tendency to discriminate against others? ” This is a question that would be of interest to a social psychologist.
Why Study Social Psychology?
Social Psychology investigates the most fascinating topic in the world! People! It provides insight into the two W’s of human behavior. What people do and why they do it. It is instrumental and applicable to everyday life. How? It helps solve serious real-world problems such as improving schools, increasing helping behaviors, reducing violence, and overcoming prejudiced attitudes. In addition to all of that, social psychology is just plain old fun!
How is Social Psychology Unique from other Psychology Subfields?
People often confuse or find it hard to tell the difference between social psychology and sociology. Sociology overlaps with social psychology. However, sociology focuses on group-level phenomena rather than at the individual level. Anthropology and social psychology both examine the association between culture and human behavior. However, anthropology tends to exclude non-cultural explanations.
Biology psychology (physiological psychology) focuses on genes, hormones, and brain functioning without considering non-biological explanations for human behavior. Cognitive psychologists examine mental processes such as our memory and judgments of people.
Clinical psychology examines the nature and causes of psychological dysfunction, and social psychology emphasizes normal psychological functioning. Personality psychologists investigate the development and nature of psychology over the lifespan. Social psychologists are more interested in how social situations affect most people regardless of their personality.
I hope I’ve given you some useful information to think about with these distinctions. I also hope you’ve been thinking about how social psychology might apply to the indicent at the Capitol building.
Life’s Fundamental Questions
Social psychology addresses 6 common themes related to what it means to be human. Some social psychologists refer to these themes as “life’s fundamental questions. ” And it is suggested that at some point in our lives, we will all seek answers to these questions. I will address 3 of these as they are the most appropriate questions in addressing the storming of the Capitol Building.
•Do we have free will? – Are we in conscious control of our actions? Or are our actions determined by outside forces over which we have no control?
•Are we independent or conformist? – Think about this for a minute. How much influence do other people have over what you say and do? Are you fairly independent, or are you mostly a conformist?
•Are we rational beings? – Can we engage in calculated, uncharged, rational thinking without letting our emotions and motivations overtake us?
What do you think? Are you able to definitively answer these questions? Or is there some doubt in your mind?
Why do “Good Patriots” do Bad Things?
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, relate to, and influence other people. Social psychology explains the impact of social influence. We do not have as much control over our actions and thoughts as we might think. We fall prey to others’ influence, particularly in situations where we belong to a cohesive group. But, we can also find ourselves in a crowd of strangers and going with the flow, only because others are doing it. We take cues from other people to determine how we should act. What psychological term describes our behavior in crowds? Crowd Psychology.
Crowd Psychology
Would you or anyone you know kill someone to get great seats at a concert? You’re probably thinking, “Of course not! “But that’s what happened at a The Who concert in Cincinnati in 1979. Eleven concert-goers were killed by other concert-goers who were trying to get a good seat. It isn’t very likely that the show attracted crazy people looking to murder someone. Reports indicated that fans were “not riotous or violent.” So what did happen?
Unfortunately, crowd disasters such as the incident at The Who concert are not as unique as you might think. A few thousand people a year die from being trapped in crowds. From a psychological perspective, it’s crucial to consider that we cannot explain people’s behavior in crowds by looking at individual crowd members’ psychological characteristics. We should treat the crowd as an object, crowd psychology.
I know you might be thinking, “How does treating the crowd as an object help explain the storming of the Capitol building that occurred?” I mean, those individuals knew why they were there and what they were doing. Right? They went there with the intent “to get into the Capitol to stop this…”, referring to fraudulent election activity.
Frenchman Gustave Le Bon (1895) believed that even the most cultured individual would turn into a “barbarian” when they were in a crowd. American social psychologists have also suggested that anonymity leads people to act impulsively, lose their sense of right versus wrong, and act aggressively.
Again, how does this apply to what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021? If you’re thinking like a social scientist, you would say that it does not. Several of the self-proclaimed patriots posted pictures and videos on their social media sites defending their actions. Some of them even mentioned planning to engage in acts of aggression, like breaking windows! Anonymity, not even close!
Yet, resources suggest that the Capitol’s storming was crowd psychology, and I can see how this term applies. You have an intentional gathering of a crowd of strangers, and tragedy resulted from the crowd’s actions. However, there are reasons that the term crowd psychology might not apply. Let’s take a look at groups and group influence.
Group Influence
The longer you study psychology, the more you will notice multiple terms that appear to describe the same theories or phenomena. Don’t worry. You’ll eventually learn how to tease apart the differences.
Unlike crowds, people in groups typically know each other, communicate with one another, and share a common goal. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. You think there’s no way that a crowd of individuals all knew one another. You’re right but work with me.
Take away the criteria of knowing one another, and you have the suggestion that group members communicate with one another and share a common goal. Consider the power of social media. In this case, individuals with common goals, “patriot helpers, “ get to know one another and push their political agenda through their online presence. The more like-minded group members are, the higher the tendency for group polarization. If you belong to a group and are on the fence about a decision, you might be exposed to persuasive arguments that lead you to more extreme attitudes. I would say the decision to storm the Capitol was quite extreme.
Typically another factor related to group decision-making is the role of the leader in the group. The then-president, Donald Trump, was said to have had a major influence on some individuals. Some of these individuals mentioned that they felt they didn’t have a choice in the matter. They felt as if Trump was urging them to attack. They claimed they were simply doing what Trump called them to do, what he told them to do! One person even stated he was “brainwashed “ by Trump! Wow!
What do You Think?
Do we really have control over our actions, so much so that we can freely choose to do what we want when we want? Social psychology tells us not as much as we think. On January 6, 2021, “patriots” stormed the U.S. Capitol building in a display of social influence at its worst.
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, relate to, and influence other people. We are social animals who engage in social behavior. We text, we gossip, we argue. And most of us communicate with others daily in some way or another. What type of influence do these social interactions have on us? These influences might be more powerful than we realize.
What if I Want to Learn More about Social Influence?
If you want to learn more about this topic, check out Stanley Milgram’s work, a pioneer in the study of obedience and social influence. Recordings from Milgram’s early experiments are available on YouTube.
Solomon Asch conducted some groundbreaking work on the study of conformity, another form of social influence. Philip Zimbardo is also a recognizable name in the field, best known for his Stanford Prison Experiment.
Consider this: “Relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority “ ~ Stanley Milgram
My advice to you, Psychologically Speaking, NEVER say what you would NEVER do!
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A podcast for anyone interested in understanding how psychology applies to everyday life!
