Collective panic is a phenomenon closely linked to the perception of risk ; it can trigger a wide range of reactions, sometimes very dangerous. Furthermore, during this period, collective panic is fueled by repeated terrorist attacks that have struck various countries around the world. This is what happened in Turin on June 3, during the screening of the Champions League final between Juventus and Real Madrid. The alleged presence of a bomb was enough to trigger an uncontrollable collective panic. But why did such an episode occur?
The invention/imitation mechanism
Many authors have turned their attention to collective phenomena. Among them we remember Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), Gustave Le Bon (1841 – 1931) and Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939). Mass psychology is defined as “the study of the behavior of unorganized groups or those with a provisional organization where single individuals act in a similar way without having significant relationships with each other ” (Umberto Galimberti, Psicologia, 1992). Gabriel Tarde was the first to introduce the term social psychology and in 1890 he wrote The Laws of Imitation . To explain social phenomena and the persistence of certain social forms (such as custom, tradition, rites), Tarde postulated the mechanism of invention-imitation. While the number of human inventions is practically unlimited, very few manage to establish themselves; and this happens through the imitative process , conceived along the lines of a natural process. For this reason, the crowd is seen as an aggregate that acts without responsibility or rationality, morally and intellectually inferior to the average of its members, driven by uncontrollable and unpredictable instincts.
Crowd Behavior
In 1895, Gustave Le Bon wrote the book Psychologie des foules (Psychology of Crowds) . His words clearly describe the behavior of crowds. “ In certain circumstances, and only in such circumstances, a group of people possesses new characteristics that are very different from those of the single individuals that compose it. The conscious personality vanishes, the feelings and ideas of all the units are oriented in the same direction. Thus a collective soul is formed, undoubtedly transitory, but with very precise characteristics. The collectivity then becomes (…) an organized crowd or, if we prefer, a psychological crowd . This crowd forms a single body and is subjected to the law of the mental unity of crowds .” Furthermore, Le Bon emphasizes that the crowd is irrational and emotional , the unconscious predominates in it and the masses behave like primitives.
The process of deindividuation
Along the same lines of thought are Freud 's statements , collected in his text Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921). According to the psychologist, when one finds oneself part of a group, whether small or large, what is called deindividuation occurs : man no longer responds to his own values and sense of responsibility but gives in to collective behavior. When one is in a group, " emotions emerge, the Superego which refers to norms and rules, weakens and the individual lets himself go in a repressive way. In this way, when panic and fear take over, people tend to imitate the actions of those around them, without reasoning rationally ."
These are just some of the contributions that allow us to immediately understand what happened that evening, what sociological/psychological processes were triggered in all those people who, at the slightest hint of risk, generated a dramatic event.
Elena Salvini
