Response #18 The Secret Science That Rules Crowds

Link to Article

I'm very well acquainted with the concept of mob mentality, and how quickly lies and slander can spread through an angry crowd, which leads to tossing rational thought out the window. This is rampant in a lot of places, real life and online. It's fascinating and irritating to see a crowd of angry people, and trying to make sense with them. Only to have the angry people calm down, usually on their own, and then finally being able to talk to them. But when with the crowd? Sense is almost impossible to achieve.

This article talks about specifically the danger of death in crowds, which wasn't what I was expecting. In dangerous situations, the people tend to trample other people to death while trying to escape or hurry to safety. Crowds tend to have a single consciousness, and despite seemingly dangerous and lethal, there is an odd rationality to crowds, with certain 'rules' governing them. Officials guarding the crowd however may not know the rules and make things worse, leading to actual deaths. It's a strange situation, but can make sense.

People are trying to figure out the science between crowds, and how to apply these findings to future situations to minimize danger in future events. Sometimes, certain ideas to prevent traffic or crowds don't work, and other solutions are often much more effective. I especially liked the school bell example, which makes a lot of sense why our school had removed the bell after a few years I had attended there. People are strange, and there are still a lot more to learn about human behavior.