I. Overview:
Deindividuation takes place in our every day life - a football fan club riot at a bad game, a fraternity's hazing tradition, or even middle school bullying groups. Its frequent observation is attributed to the commonness of its founding factors of anonymity, diffused responsibility and group size.
II. Anonymity:
The word "anonymity" is derived from French word "anonymité." It refers to the namelessness of an individual and/or the characteristic of being unidentifiable. Anonymity plays a dominant role in producing the deindividuation effect in groups. When an individual blends in with other individuals, he gradually comes to forsake his self-identity and adopt the group identity; his self-awareness diminishes. The group's thoughts become his own thoughts. He finds the safety of being unidentifiable: he is only a puzzle piece of a big picture; no one will call on him personally. Increased anonymity equals decreased identifiability. In other words, anonymity ensures that an individual cannot be found out.
III. Diffused responsibility:
Diffused responsibility, in addition to anonymity, encourages group members to take on tasks they would not imagine doing alone. The function for responsibility can be roughly interpreted in Math as 1/x, where 1 is an individual and x is the number of members in a group. According to basic Math laws, when the numerator is constant, the larger the denominator, the smaller the whole fraction will be. In other words, the more members there are in a group, the less responsibility one individual has to take on. Together with decreased responsibility is a decrease in the need for self-evaluation, which leads to a reduction in internal inhibitions such as embarrassment and shame. In short, diffused responsibility ensures that an individual is not held responsible.
IV. Group size:
The group size acts as an amplifier: it magnifies the effects of anonymity and diffused responsibility. The larger the group size is, the faster and more effectively deindividuation will take place.
V. The uncut thread:
Deindividuation thrives on the basis of anonymity, diffused responsibility and group size. But how accurate is this speculation in real life? After all, it's just a social theory.
But is it?
That made me think: to what extend are we ourselves and not a result of participation in a specific group? It is an interesting perspective due to the fact that nobody is completely alone to the point that does not receive any external influence into their own personality (unless you live in a jungle -- even so, living with animals may affect you!). Perhaps the concept of Anonymité is passé these days.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very true observation, Nick. As with any social theory, this concept is not absolute. The discussion on the border of involvement and deindividuation promises to be a very interesting topic. In this blog I will only be concentrating on the effect of the latter though; of course under the assumption that deindividuation has already taken place!
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