In 1841, Scottish writer Charles Mackay wrote a bestseller titled Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
Mackay鈥檚 account of mass crowd delusion focused on three infamous (if non-violent) financial manias of the time 鈥� John Law鈥檚 Mississippi Scheme, the South Sea Bubble and Tulipomania, each of which spread in all directions and duped thousands of gullible investors.
Mackay鈥檚 central thesis was that being well-educated, intelligent and sensible is no defence against the mesmerizing appeal of a popular craze that has 鈥渢he wind of 颅something I want to believe鈥� behind it.
In the view of his biographers, Mackay proved himself a master chronicler of mass aberrations in both the social and financial history of the credulous, who were only too willing to deny that they were caught up in a miasma of misinformation.
Given that Mackay鈥檚 thesis still applies to the madness of anti-vaxxing, anti-masking and ignoring social distancing in a time when a lethal disease can be spread by any and all of the above, it is no surprise that his book still sells today on Amazon, Kindle and Audiobook.
One hundred and eighty years later, it is still regarded as a record of large-scale naivet茅.
As one contemporary reviewer writes online: 鈥淭he book recalls the plight of some of the unfortunates on these pages, and [how to] avoid getting dragged under the wheels of the careering bandwagon yourself.鈥�
Michael Gearon, writing about crowd psychology today, describes 鈥渢he 颅bandwagon effect鈥� as what occurs 鈥渨hen people do, believe or say something because they see other people are doing it (so it must be right), despite the fact that it might not line up with their own original beliefs, which they tend to ignore.鈥�
Gearon points out that the bandwagon effect is gaining ground in today鈥檚 world of daily uncurated and unedited social media influence and sometimes intentional 颅misinformation.
He quotes early 17th-century English philosopher, statesman and essayist Francis Bacon as writing that 鈥渢he human 颅understanding, when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it.鈥�
Mackay, who wrote about mob 颅behaviour, would not have been amazed at the 颅behaviour and everyday madness of today鈥檚 crowds, which sometimes become mobs at the drop of a placard or the slightest 颅frustration or provocation.
Many retailers 鈥� Walmart is one 颅example 鈥� hold 鈥渄oorbuster鈥� Black Friday sales offering deep discounts on a limited 颅number of TVs, iPods, DVD players, and other 颅coveted products. People sometimes begin lining up the night before and will camp out on the sidewalk all night for a chance to buy a discounted TV and 鈥渟ave鈥� maybe $150.
Sometimes fights break out. In 2011, the New Yorker ran a piece by writer John Seabrook called Crush Point, which asked: 鈥淲hen large crowds assemble, is there a way to keep them safe?鈥�
Seabrook described an incident in 2008 when an early-shopper crowd crush at a Walmart resulted in the deaths of several people. The crowd, which had waited in line since the night before, became 颅violently 颅agitated for reasons that are barely 颅believable.
Seabrook describes how the mayhem began: 鈥淎s more people gathered, in 颅anticipation of the store鈥檚 opening, at 5 a.m., the pressure on the doors built and they began to shake. 鈥楶ush the doors in!鈥� some chanted from the back.鈥�
Soccer games, rock concerts and even political rallies where speakers incite mob violence all qualify as potential 颅contemporary 鈥渕ad crowd鈥� tragedies.
In 1895, there was another scholarly effort to understand mob mentality: The聽Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon.
Le Bon, a French intellectual and writer, was clearly repulsed by the 1848 Paris 颅rebellion, as justified as it may have been, and described 鈥渢he howling, swarming, 颅ragged crowd鈥� at the centre of the uprising.
Ever since, and especially in the 颅aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob violence in Washington D.C., social scientists have sought to understand the dynamics of humans en masse.
Their research identified a new kind of violent mass movement in the case of Jan.聽6, when more 鈥渘ormal鈥� Trump 颅supporters 鈥� middle-class and, in many cases, 颅middle-aged people without obvious ties to the far right 鈥� joined with extremists in an attempt to overturn a presidential election.
As Charles Mackay wrote in 1841: 鈥淢en it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.鈥�
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
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