RELEASE FROM REPRESSED EMOTIONS

The prejudices and unsatisfied desires of the individual, which are normally held in restraint, are readily released in a mob. This temporary release is a powerful incentive for a person to join in a mob action because it affords an opportunity to do things he or she would normally never do.

Control force members who foster contempt for certain people or segments of society may take advantage of their position to express their contempt. All control force members should be thoroughly briefed about performing duties fairly and impartially, and they must be made aware that they can be held individually accountable for their actions.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT CROWD BEHAVIOR

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: List and explain five factors that affect crowd behavior.

In addition to the psychological influences on behavior, additional factors have been identified that affect group behavior. These factors include emotional needs, moral attitudes, crowd leadership, the use of physical stimuli, and external controls. However irrational and unrestrained crowd behavior may appear, it is ruled by these factors.

EMOTIONAL NEEDS

Crowd behavior expresses the emotional needs, resentments, and prejudices of the members. The emotional stimulus and protection of the crowd encourages its members to express the impulses, hostilities, aggressions, and rages that they restrain in calmer moments. When members of a mob are blocked from expressing emotion toward one another, the mob's attention generally shifts in another direction.

MORAL ATTITUDES

Crowd behavior is limited by the conviction of the members as to what is right. The concept of what is right is based on the customs or folkways, the conventional behaviors, and the moral attitudes of the times and places in which people live. A crowd rarely does anything without some moral approval. A lynching will occur only where a large proportion of the people feel that it is morally justified. The members of a lynching party consider themselves public benefactors, not guilty lawbreakers.

CROWD LEADERSHIP

Leadership profoundly affects the intensity and direction of crowd behavior. A skillful agitator can convert a group of frustrated, resentful people into a vengeful mob and direct their aggression at any target included in their resentment. Likewise, an individual can sometimes calm or divert a crowd by a strategic suggestion or command. In many crowd situations, the members, frustrated by confusion and uncertainty, want to be directed. The first person who starts giving clear orders in an authoritative manner is likely to be followed. At this stage of crowd development, radicals can take charge and exploit the crowd's mood and turn it toward a target of convenience. On the other hand, a leader may calm the crowd, appeal to the reasoning powers of the individuals present, and avoid a potentially dangerous situation.

THE USE OF PHYSICAL STIMULI

professional agitators may resort to the use of physical stimuli in the form of drugs and liquor to create a false sense of bravado, recklessness, and desperation among selected neighborhood residents. These individuals are encouraged to set up and perpetrate violent acts in their own neighborhood while the professional joins the crowd and cheers them on from the outskirts. This technique is difficult to cope with, because the crowd will be in sympathy with a neighbor. A show of force by authorities often will compound the violence.

EXTERNAL CONTROLS

Weather is an important external control. Crowds usually form in the summertime when people are able to gather in large outdoor assemblies. Cold weather and rain discourage group actions.

Local government is also an external control that affects crowd behavior. Crowd behavior seldom becomes violent when the local government is prepared to cope with the situation before it gets out of hand. Police also have a strong influence on crowd behavior.

Most of these factors that affect group behavior can be applied to situations in a Navy environment, both ashore and aboard ship, particularly aboard larger ships such as carriers.

PANIC

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Explain how panic affects group behavior. Describe five situations that cause panic and explain two methods used to prevent panic. Identify the most important consideration in preventing panic.

Panic is a factor that must always be considered in crowd control. It results from terror, which inspires unreasoning and frantic efforts to seek safety. Panic is extremely contagious and spreads rapidly. The reactions of people become so irrational that they endanger themselves and others.

CAUSES OF PANIC

The following situations are causes of panic:

l Perceived threat. This is the knowledge or feeling that danger threatens. Usually the danger is felt to be so close at hand that the only course of action is to flee.

l Partial entrapment. The escape routes are limited. Often only one escape route exists.

l Partial or complete breakdown of the escape route. The already limited exits are further blocked or congested. Passage is limited and slow, or even halted.

l Front-to-rear communications failure. When people at the rear of the crowd continue to assume the escape route is open after it is blocked the panic situation is completed. The physical force of people in the rear trying to force their way to the blocked exit causes those in the front to be crushed, smothered, or trampled.

l Massed mob exposure to riot control agents. In a heavily massed configuration, individuals within the mob will be unable to readily escape riot control agents. Their sudden exposure to any significant quantity of a riot control agent may result in a panic situation that may seriously injure large numbers of people.

PREVENTION OF PANIC

Take every precaution to prevent panic. The most important consideration in preventing panic is to keep the people informed. If people can be convinced that no threat exists, or be kept fully informed as to the nature of the existing threat, it is less likely that panic will occur. Always maintain a means of communication with the people.

Another important factor in preventing panic is the establishment of avenues of escape. Ensure these escape routes are well publicized and are clearly defined. Control movement along the avenues of escape so that the flow is channeled in the desired direction. When dispersing a crowd, remember that actual physical blockage of escape routes is not necessary to create panic; the same effect will result if the crowd has cause to believe that escape routes are blocked.