Crowds are only cognisant of simple and extreme sentiments; the opinions, ideas, and beliefs suggested to them are accepted or rejected as a whole, and considered as absolute truth...
The invariability of certain general beliefs--They shape the course of a civilisation--The difficulty of uprooting them--In what respect intolerance is a virtue in a people--The ph...
Different varieties of them--The influence of race--The spirit of the crowd is weak in proportion as the spirit of the race is strong--The spirit of the race represents the civilis...
When it is wanted to stir up a crowd for a short space of time, to induce it to commit an act of any nature--to pillage a palace, or to die in defence of a stronghold or a barricad...
A close parallel exists between the anatomical and psychological characteristics of living beings. In these anatomical characteristics certain invariable, or slightly variable, ele...
When studying the fundamental characteristics of a crowd we stated that it is guided almost exclusively by unconscious motives. Its acts are far more under the influence of the spi...
The crowd is at the mercy of all exterior exciting causes, and reflects their incessant variations--The impulses which the crowd obeys are so imperious as to annihilate the feeling...
CROWDS. Crowds do not admit doubt or uncertainty, and always go to extremes--Their sentiments always excessive. 4. THE INTOLERANCE, DICTATORIALNESS, AND CONSERVATISM OF CROWDS. The...
A crowd may be legally yet not psychologically criminal-- The absolute unconsciousness of the acts of crowds--Various examples--Psychology of the authors of the September massacres...
What constitutes a crowd from the psychological point of view--A numerically strong agglomeration of individuals does not suffice to form a crowd--Special characteristics of psycho...
The magical power of words and formulae--The power of words bound up with the images they evoke, and independent of their real sense--These images vary from age to age, and from ra...
Homogeneous crowds include: 1. Sects; 2. Castes; 3. Classes. The SECT represents the first step in the process of organisation of homogeneous crowds. A sect includes individuals di...
Experience constitutes almost the only effective process by which a truth may be solidly established in the mind of the masses, and illusions grown too dangerous be destroyed. To t...
In enumerating the factors capable of making an impression on the minds of crowds all mention of reason might be dispensed with, were it not necessary to point out the negative val...
Great power is given to ideas propagated by affirmation, repetition, and contagion by the circumstance that they acquire in time that mysterious force known as prestige. Whatever h...
From the dawn of civilisation onwards crowds have always undergone the influence of illusions. It is to the creators of illusions that they have raised more temples, statues, and a...
Fundamental and accessory ideas-- How contradictory ideas may exist simultaneously--The transformation that must be undergone by lofty ideas before they are accessible to crowds--...
Taking the word "morality" to mean constant respect for certain social conventions, and the permanent repression of selfish impulses, it is quite evident that crowds are too impuls...
The evolution of the present age--The great changes in civilisation are the consequence of changes in National thought--Modern belief in the power of crowds--It transforms the trad...
Scarcely a century ago the traditional policy of European states and the rivalries of sovereigns were the principal factors that shaped events. The opinion of the masses scarcely c...
SUGGESTION. The obedience of crowds to suggestions--The images evoked in the mind of crowds are accepted by them as realities--Why these images are identical for all the individual...
It cannot absolutely be said that crowds do not reason and are not to be influenced by reasoning. However, the arguments they employ and those which are capable of influencing them...
When defining crowds, we said that one of their general characteristics was an excessive suggestibility, and we have shown to what an extent suggestions are contagious in every hum...
Whether the feelings exhibited by a crowd be good or bad, they present the double character of being very simple and very exaggerated. On this point, as on so many others, an indiv...
Traditions represent the ideas, the needs, and the sentiments of the past. They are the synthesis of the race, and weigh upon us with immense force. The biological sciences have be...
When studying the imagination of crowds we saw that it is particularly open to the impressions produced by images. These images do not always lie ready to hand, but it is possible...
It is independent ofthe worship of a divinity-- Its characteristics--The strength of convictions assuming a religious shape--Various examples--Popular gods have never disappeared--...
General characteristics of juries--statistics show that their decisions are independent of their composition--The manner in which an impression may be made on juries--The style and...
The instinctive need of all beings forming a crowd to obey a leader--The psychology of the leaders of crowds--They alone can endow crowds with faith and organise them--The leaders...