What is Mass Formation?

And why it’s important to understand it

Mass formation also known as mob or crowd psychology — is the study of how individual behavior is influenced by large group of people. This branch of social psychology has been studied by Sigmund Freud, Floyd Allport, Gustave Le Bon, and many others.

It is suggested by Gustave Le Bon that the masses go through three main stages as part of what’s considered to be a mass hypnosis:

• Submergence — a phase characterized by losing individual identity, which is similar to the concept of de-indivduation that was introduced by Festinger and his colleagues in 1952. De-individuation theory explains that being in a crowd lessens personal identity, guilt, self-evaluation, empathy and other individual morality-related behaviours; this theory was then improved by Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. (Very creepy!).
• Contagion — a phase characterized by having individuals ideas and emotions greatly influenced by the dynamics of their surrounding masses.
• Suggestion — the phase where the group have developed a shared unconscious which affect their decisions and feelings.

Freud also suggests that being in a crowd reveals the unconscious given that the moral principle is displaced by the more powerful masses or a more influential group leader. The best and worst example, is how many Germans blindly followed Hitler’s immoral and inhumane orders during the holocaust, and actually believed it was for the “greater good”.

Recently, a Belgian professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University who holds a masters degree in statistics, Dr. Mattias Desmet has expressed concerns about some of the data he has been studying that might be causing the lack of empathy and segregation that we’ve been seeing in the western world recently because of the pandemic.

Dr. Mattias has identified four psychological conditions that may have resulted in crowd madness or mass formation psychosis during the pandemic:

• Lack of social bond and isolation — due to COVID-19 restriction measures and the rise of social media, where people are seemingly connected, but truly not.
• Experiencing life as meaningless or senseless — losing sight of human connection, family, and a divine power. Focusing on everything material that is not fulfilling and losing the true meaning of life. A Gallup poll from 2012 revealed that 63% of respondents admitted that they were sleepwalking through their day.
• Free-floating anxiety — Thanks to the news and media, creating and feeding fear and anxiety to the masses. Quoting the Black Eyed Peas:

“Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria”

• Free-floating frustration and aggression — People feel frustrated and aggressive without really knowing the cause of their annoyance and anger.

Dr. Mattias suggests that when the above four conditions are fulfilled, if ANY narrative is distributed through the mass media identifying an Object of the anxiety and providing a strategy to deal with that Object, mass formation can thrive. Since it provides the masses a sudden connection to a heroic struggle allowing them to meet their needs and provides them with a release — giving them a new social bond and meaning that has been lacking.

At this point in time, people feel they have control over their psychological discontent that can be released by participating in a strategy, that may not make sense to each individual if they were in a psychologically healthy state and were thinking critically of things without the mass influence of the group (or media).

Participation in the strategy has nothing to do with facts or logic; it is survival to preserve this new social bond created by fighting together to defeat the Object of their collective anxiety and frustration. By obeying the strategy, people can go from a very negative, isolated state to the polar opposite — a state of maximum connectedness, creating mental intoxication that makes the masses willing to go with anything even if immoral or illogical.

This is the summation of mass hypnosis, is focusing the attention on a small part of reality narrated by the hypnotist. Just like hypnosis, people absorbed in mass formation are not aware of what’s happening outside the small focus of attention that the narrative provides.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are the writer’s personal views and not necessarily those of Medium. This article is not intended to push for or against any vaccination mandates. This article is intended to share scientific research and knowledge that may or may not encourage individual critical thinking and decision-making.