The Psychology of Peaceful Protests
Why we don’t have chaos when we should
Everyone seems to be protesting these days — mostly against police brutality. I take the bus to school every day, and I’ve driven straight through a protest on several occasions. I’m using the opportunity to study something I’ve been interested in throughout my childhood — group psychology.
I think I know a lot about people — after all, if you experience something every day for sixteen years, you tend to become quite familiar with it. But with people, it’s different. You never really know enough to do The Mentalist-type trick, or talk your way out of a difficult situation. But I can learn (I think), and that’s why I love protests.
Think about it — you basically have several hundred people, who may or may not be motivated by the same thing. But they obey the same rules. It isn’t a free-for-all. It’s a protest.
In my country, we’ve had protests for two weeks running. Today, I even walked through one. Here’s why I’m still safe, and why the protests are working.
We are all fundamentally the same
Believe it or not, everyone wants— money, sex, and an iPhone 12 (with AirPods, please). We also don’t want the same things — injury, disease, or public shaming. This is what keeps…
