collective behavior

Definition of Collective Behavior

(noun) The voluntary, relatively spontaneous short-term response to an emerging situation by a large group of people that often violates norms and values.

Examples of Collective Behavior

• fad
• lynching
• mass hysteria (group hysteria)

Collective Behavior Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: col·lec·tive be·hav·ior

Audio Pronunciation

Phonetic Spelling

• American English – /kuh-lEk-tiv bi-hAY-vyuhr/
• British English – /kuh-lEk-tiv bi-hAY-vyuh/

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /kəˈlɛktɪv bɪˈheɪvjər/
• British English – /kɒˈlɛktɪv bɪˈheɪvjə/

Usage Notes

• Plural: collective behaviors
  
• Collective behavior is typically unplanned and sometimes dangerous.
• The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895) by Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931) was early sociological work examining collective behavior.
• Collective behavior scholars include:
  • Herbert Blumer (1900–1987)
  • Charles Mackay (1814–1889)
    • Note: Mackay wrote Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)
  • Robert Park (1864–1944)
  • Neil Smelser (1930–2017)
  • Max Weber (1864–1920)
• A type of behavior.
• Variant spelling: collective behaviour
• Also called crowd behavior.

Related Quotation

• “Through a complex process that is not yet fully understood by students of mass communication, the mere reporting of one event has, under certain circumstances, the effect of triggering off events of a similar order. This effect is much easier to understand and is better documented in regard to the spread of crazes, fashions, fads and other forms of collective behaviour, such as mass delusion or hysteria, than in cases of deviance. The main reason why this process has been misunderstood in regard to deviance – particularly collective and novel forms – is that too much attention has been placed on the supposed direct effects (imitation, attention, gratification, identification) on the deviants, rather than the effects on the control system and culture and hence (via such processes as amplification) on the deviance” (Cohen 2002:187).

Additional Information

• Word origin of “collective” and “behavior” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Allport, Floyd Henry. 1924. Social Psychology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Carson, Rachel, Lois Darling, and Louis Darling. 1962. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Durkheim, Émile. [1906] 2010. Sociology and Philosophy. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
• Durkheim, Émile. [1893] 2014. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
• Canetti, Elias. 1962. Crowds and Power. New York: Viking Press.
• Fleischer, Jeff. 2011. The Latest Craze: A Short History of Mass Hysterias. New York: Fall River Press.
• Gibbs, Lois Marie, and Murray Levine. 1982. Love Canal: My Story. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Jung, Carl G., and R. F. C. Hull. [1934] 2014. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
• Katz, Harry Charles, Thomas A. Kochan, and Alexander James Colvin. 2008. An Introduction to Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
• Lang, Kurt, and Gladys Engel Lang. 1961. Collective Dynamics. New York: Crowell.
• LeBon, Gustave. 1896. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. London, Ernest Benn.
• Lee, Alfred McClung, and Herbert Blumer, eds. 1971. Principles of Sociology. 3rd ed. New York: Barnes and Noble.
• Locher, David A. 2002. Collective Behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Mackay, Charles. 1841. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
• McPhail, Clark. 1991. The Myth of the Madding Crowd. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
• Miller, David L. 2014. Introduction to Collective Behavior and Collective Action. 3rd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
• Miller, Neil, and John Dollard. 1941. Social Learning and Imitation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Naldi, Giovanni, Lorenzo Pareschi, and Giuseppe Toscani. 2010. Mathematical Modelling of Collective Behavior in Socio-economic and Life Sciences. Boston: Birkhäuser.
• Park, Robert E., and Ernest W. Burgess. 1972. Introduction to the Science of Sociology. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Rule, James B. 1988. Theories of Civil Violence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Singer, June K. 2000. Blake, Jung, and the Collective Unconscious. York Beach, ME: Nicolas-Hays.
• Smelser, Neil J. 1962. Theory of Collective Behavior. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Surowiecki, James. 2004. The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Doubleday.
• Turner, Ralph H., and Lewis M. Killian. 1987. Collective Behavior. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• van Ginneken, Jaap. 2003. Collective Behavior and Public Opinion: Rapid Shifts in Opinion and Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Related Terms

• assembling perspective
• casual crowd
• conventional crowd
• crowd
• culture
• demography
• expressive crowd
• group
• individual
• norm
• people

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Reference

Cohen, Stanley. 2002. Folk Devils and Moral Panics. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.

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Cite the Definition of Collective Behavior

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “collective behavior.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 20, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/collective-behavior/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

collective behavior. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/collective-behavior/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “collective behavior.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 20, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/collective-behavior/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“collective behavior.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/collective-behavior/>.