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Deindividuation refers to the phenomenon of a person losing their inhibitions because they are no longer identifiable. One way that people can become deindividuated is when they are part of a large group or a crowd. Deindividuation has been used to explain why people who are usually well-behaved can become violent during, for example, riots.
Festinger (1952) defined deindividuation as:
“...a state of affairs in a group where members do not pay attention to other individuals qua individuals and, correspondingly, the members do not feel they are being singled out by others”
Festinger believed that when we become deindividuated, we merge our identities with that of the group and become anonymous; this allows us to lose our inhibitions.
Studies Investigating Deindividuation
Zimbardo (1969) found that female students who wore lab coats and hoods to cover their faces gave twice as much electric shock as participants who wore their own clothes and large name badges.
Zimbardo (1969) left a car with its bonnet open in a big city (New York) and a small town (Palo Alto) and filmed how people behaved towards them. Within 10 minutes of being parked in the New York Bronx, the battery and radiator were removed and there was very little left after 3 days. The items were all removed by well-dressed, clean cut, whites. The car left in the small town was not damaged at all and a passer by lowered the bonnet when it started raining.
American children who wore identity concealing Halloween costumes were observed to steal more sweets and money than those who wore costumes where they remained identifiable (Deiner et al., 1976).
The deindividuation theory of aggression is compatible with social learning theory. According to social learning theory, simply observing another’s actions can lead to a person learning that behaviour. However, the behaviour is only exhibited if the behaviour of the model is rewarded with a favourable outcome. In Bandura’s studies, for example, the children who saw the model being punished for being violent did not act violently when they were given the opportunity to play with the doll; nevertheless, when they were asked to do what the model did they were able to copy the behaviour, indicating that learning had taken place. People may learn behaviour through social learning, but not exhibit it because of social constraints, or fear of punishment. If they later have the opportunity to exhibit the behaviour without fear of being punished (e.g., when they are deindividuated) then they may act violently.
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