CROWD BEHAVIOR
A crowd is 3 temporary collection of people reacting together to stimuli. A busload of passengers, each buried in private daydreams, is not acrowd let the driver stop for a few drinks, and they promptly form a crowd. Unlike most other groups, a crowd is temporary. Its members rarely know one another. ' Most forms of crowd behavior are unstructured, with no rules, no traditions, no formal controls, no designated leaders no established for the, members to. follow. Crowd behavior sometimes becomes violent, most often in response to bungling or violent attack by police or troops [Couch, 1968; Perry ,and Pugh, 1978,p. 19). Crowd behavior is often called "irrational," usually by people who disapprove of the goals being sought. But crowd behavior is often goal-directed, sometimes. very intelligently, and thus may be entirely "rational," even though the goals may be disapproved by others [Berk, 1974b]. Crowd behavior may appear to be spontaneous and utterly unpredictable, but as we shall see, crowd behavior is not purely a matter of chance or impulse. Crowd behavior is a part of the culture. The kinds of crowds hat fonn and the things a crowd will do and will not do differ from one culture to another.
Crowd behavior can be analyzed and understood, and to some extent predicted and controlled .
