Deindividuation

People, do you all remember To Kill A Mockingbird? There is this particular scene in the book which I just read about in my Social Psych text…which brought back a lot of memories as well as made me realise the danger of…the mob effect, in Mrs Koh’s words, and in social psych terms, deindividuation.

Remember the scene where the Old Sarum bunch mobbed Atticus, Scout and Jem? For those who have the Heinemann New Windmills version, flip to Page 159 if you want to. Haha. Scout got tired of Atticus asking Jem to bring her and Dill home and scanned the crowd for a familiar face, and found one – Mr Cunningham, whose son, Walter, is her classmate. She then went on to ask Mr Cunningham about his legal affairs, which were “well known to [Scout]” as “Atticus had once described them at length”. At first, the crowd did not respond, so Scout continued talking and trying to get Mr Cunningham to respond to her and show that he remembered her, and he finally “squatted down and took [Scout] by both shoulders” and said that he would say hi to Walter for her (that was her request).

Actually, the mob was very unhappy with Atticus, a white man, for actually daring to go against social norms and defend Tom Robinson, an African American man, who was accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell (I will never forget the gist of this meaningful novel, haha). They had wanted to kill Tom, who was in Atticus’ office at the moment. Jem had wanted to visit Atticus at his office and had no choice but to bring his sister and Dill along when Scout found out. And as these men were in a group, deindividuation, which makes people feel less accountable for their actions because it reduces the likelihood that any individual will be singled out and blamed, took place, and Scout (oooh that’s MEEE!! I’m Jean Louise Finch hehe =P) actually succeeded in turning a faceless mob into a collection of individual citizens by her singling out of Mr Cunningham. She had unwittingly increased the extent to which the mob felt like individuals who were accountable for their actions by doing so…

And yes, for your information, the rest of the story goes like this – “Then [Mr Cunningham] straightened up and waved a big paw. ‘Let’s clear out,’ he called. ‘Let’s get going, boys.’
As they had come, in ones and twos the men shuffled back to their ramshackle cars. Doors slammed, engines coughed, and they were gone.”

=)