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It is a familiar scene, students are sitting in the cafeteria during lunch, and one person begins clapping and singing happy birthday. One by one, everyone joins in. Soon enough, almost everyone in the cafeteria is singing. Some of the people don't know who they are singing to, but sing along just because everyone else is. The act is known as mob mentality.

Mob mentality is the way people are influenced by crowds, large groups of people, or their peers and society to adopt certain behaviors. It isn't always serious, but it can be, depending on the situation. Mob mentality can range from anything; such as watching the newest Netflix show everyone's talking about, or intentionally changing yourself to fit in with the others. In school mob mentality is common due to students constantly being around large groups and their peers.

When a large crowd of people are all doing the same thing, it has been proven that people tend to lose their sense of self awareness, and mimic what everyone else is doing. When people lose their self awareness it can lead to rioting, chaos, and bullying.

"At lunch, all the time, every time, there's always one person disrespecting a superior person like the deans and teachers, and then everyone else joins in" 8th grade, Zacora Smith, states.

Additional examples of mob mentality that students may have experienced include the lights being turned off during lunch. One student may start to scream causing a domino effect of screams to follow after. Talking in class is another example of mob mentality, when one person begins talking it can then trigger other students to start chatting as well.

Mob mentality is not always unintentional. At times students could be listening to the new album everyone is talking about, or going to see the latest movie, because everyone else had seen it too. On the other hand, following what others are doing can be harmful. When a new clothing, makeup, or appearance-related trend in general goes viral, people may not even like them, but end up following along because they feel pressured by other students or fear being isolated.

"It made me feel even more out of place, I felt like I wasn't being true to myself. I'm sure others can relate, but it's definitely a possibility where you can find a new style that you like" 8 th grader, Destiny Williams, states.

Students may also be influenced by their peers bad behavior. If someone sees that their classmates thinks the person distracting the class is funny, they may begin acting the same way as an attempt to fit in.

"I finally realized that what I was doing was the wrong thing. I started to feel bad and my gut was telling me to stop. I realized that this isn't the type of way I should behave and that I would end up being the bad guy." Williams further stated.

Succumbing to mob mentality doesn't only have negative effects though. In other cases, mob mentality can be the push students need to start having a positive impact on the community rather than having a negative one.

"Of course there is always going to be negative effects of picking up on other people's behavior, but there is positive parts about it too. If a bunch of people were doing positive things, and others start doing the same, it can have a really good impact." says 8th grade, Alia White.

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It is a familiar scene, students are sitting in the cafeteria during lunch, and one person begins clapping and singing happy birthday. One by one, everyone joins in. Soon enough, almost everyone in the cafeteria is singing. Some of the people don't know who they are singing to, but sing along just because everyone else...

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Summary and Analysis Chapter 9 - A View to a Death

Summary

As a storm builds over the island, Simon awakens from his faint and makes his way to the beast sighting on the mountain. He finds the paratrooper's body, inspects it, and realizes its true identity. From his vantage point, he can see that most of the boys are at the fire at Jack's camp, so he heads there to give everyone the news. He is so weakened by the day's experiences that he can barely walk.

Ralph and Piggy realize even the biguns loyal to Ralph have gone to Jack's party. They go as well, out of curiosity and hunger. Jack allows them to eat but, when everyone is finished eating, calls for all the boys to indicate whether they'd like to join his group or remain with Ralph's. Ralph makes a pitch for the boys to stay with him, reminding them of the first day's election. Jack has a strong hold on them, however, playing up the role of tribal chief.

The storm breaks over the party. Jack orders a dance in response to the downpour. Ralph and Piggy join in the outer fringes of the dance as well. Suddenly, Simon crawls out of the forest and into the center of the dance circle. He tries to tell them about the true identity of the beast sighted on the mountain but can barely make himself heard over the storm and the boys' now frenzied chanting. Overcome by its own momentum, the group turns on Simon as if he were the beast and kills him. The rain increases and the boys back off, leaving Simon's body on the beach. That night, the tide carries his body away.

The storm's wind fills the dead soldier's parachute and lifts him up and over the island and out to sea. This sight terrifies the boys, and they scatter, screaming.

Analysis

This chapter focuses on Simon and the fulfillment of his role as a visionary mystic. Awakening from his faint, he asks again out loud the question he put to the assembly in the previous chapter: "What else is there to do?" He must face whatever is on the mountain. That confrontation seems to have aged him: he walks with the difficulty of an old man, as if bowed down by "the infinite cynicism of adult life" that he saw in the pig's eyes.

Simon doesn't seem to fear the beast sighted on the mountain. Given the doubts he had in Chapter 6 about this supposed beast and having had a visitation from the true beast, the Lord of the Flies, Simon has moved past fear into another arena of emotion. Approaching the frightful figure on the mountain, he sees it sit up and look at him; in response "He hid his face" as if in shame over the boys' misconceptions about its menace. Then he frees the lines of the soldier's parachute from the rocks, enabling the dead soldier to fly off during the storm, which it does upon Simon's death.

In a way, the soldier is actually working as an agent of the true beast, bringing out the worst in the boys. They do not band together to overcome this fearful situation but allow their own worst impulses to surface and dominate, fragmenting into opposing groups and killing one of their own in a frenzy of fear and savagery. Considering that his arrival on the island was brought about by a battle of the ongoing war, the soldier truly was an emissary of the beast, the savagery that lurks in humanity.

Of the boys, only Simon took the presence of an unidentified creature on the mountain as a sign to be explored or a symbol to be considered, rather than as an indication of an animal-beast's presence. By courageously seeking out the figure on the mountain, Simon fulfills his destiny of revelation. Having confronted both the Lord of the Flies (the sow's head on a stick) and the so-called beast (the soldier's corpse), Simon understands the nature of the evil on the island. He doesn't get to share his revelation with the other boys because they are not ready to accept or understand it. They are living out the true beast's actions while they think of themselves as playacting the roles of painted savages, which is Jack's idea of fun - and the true beast's as well.
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Get free homework help on William Golding's Lord of the Flies: book summary, chapter summary and analysis, quotes, essays, and character analysis courtesy of CliffsNotes. In Lord of the Flies , British schoolboys are stranded on a tropical island. In an attempt to recreate the culture they left behind, they elect Ralph to lead, with the intellectual Piggy as counselor.

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It may seem that we are in control of our thoughts and behavior. But social psychology tells a different story.

Social psychology is defined as "the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another." We are social beings. Most of us communicate with others every day, spending large portions of our waking hours in some form of communication.

One lesson from social psychology is the influence others have on us. Research shows we do not have as much control over our thoughts and behavior as we think. We take cues from our environment, especially other people, on how to act.

How groups influence us

Consider the concept of group polarization. The idea is that likeminded people in a group reinforce one another's viewpoints. Group polarization strengthens the opinions of each person in the group.

In a study by French psychologists Serge Moscovici and Marisa Zavalloni, researchers asked participants some questions. First, researchers asked about their opinion of the French president. Second, they asked about their attitude toward Americans. The researchers then asked the participants to discuss each topic as a group.

After a discussion, groups who held a tentative consensus became more extreme in their opinions. For example, participants held slightly favorable attitudes toward the French president. But their attitudes magnified as group members spoke with one another. They held slightly negative attitudes toward Americans. But their attitudes intensified as each member learned others shared their views about their allies abroad. The researchers concluded, "Group consensus seems to induce a change of attitudes in which subjects are likely to adopt more extreme positions." When we see our uncertain opinions reflected back to us, our beliefs strengthen.

Many of us also enjoy being with others who share similar beliefs. In one experiment, researchers invited people to discuss issues including same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and climate change. People in one group came from predominantly liberal Boulder, Colorado. People in another group came from mostly conservative Colorado Springs. The discussions on controversial topics led to increased agreement within the groups. Beliefs we hold are strengthened when we are around others who hold similar views.

If other people do it, that means it's right. Right?

There is a heuristic most of us use to determine what to do, think, say, and buy: the principle of social proof. To learn what is correct, we look at what other people are doing. In his bestselling book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, psychologist Robert Cialdini writes, "Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will be important in defining the answer." Social proof is a shortcut to decide how to act.

Cialdini has used the principle of social proof to prevent environmental theft. Consider the case of Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park. Visitors would arrive at the park and learn of past thievery from prominent signs: "Your heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time."

In one experiment, Cialdini removed the sign from a specific path in the park to measure any differences it might make. The path with no sign had one-third less theft than the path with the sign. Visitors interpreted the sign's message as permission. Put differently, visitors thought it was "normal" to take small pieces of wood, because so much was stolen every year.

Researchers have also used the principle of social proof to help people overcome their fears. In one study, Albert Bandura and his colleagues worked with a group of young children frightened of dogs. The children watched a four-year-old boy happily play with a dog for 20 minutes a day for four days. After the four day period, 67 percent of the children who watched the boy play with the dog were willing to enter a playpen with a dog. When the researchers conducted a follow-up study one month later, they found the same children were willing to play with a dog. Watching a little boy have fun with a dog reduced fear in children. They used the behavior of a boy playing with a dog as a model to change their own behavior.

Why do others influence us so much?

Clearly, others affect our behavior. One reason for this is that we live in a complex world. We use the decisions of others as a heuristic, or mental shortcut, to navigate our lives. English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead once said, "Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them."

In his book Influence, Cialdini uses the example of advertisers informing us that a product is the "fastest-growing" or "best-selling." Advertisers don't have to persuade us that a product is good, they only need to say others think so.

Cialdini notes that consumers often use a simple heuristic: Popular is good. Following the crowd allows us to function in a complicated environment. Most of us do not have time to increase our knowledge of all merchandise and research every advertised item to measure its usefulness.

Instead, we rely on signals like popularity. If everyone else is buying something, the reasoning goes, there is a good chance the item is worth our attention.

A second reason others influence us is that humans are social. We have survived because of our ability to band together. Early humans who formed groups were more likely to survive. This affected our psychology.

As Julia Coultas, a researcher at the University of Essex, puts it, "For an individual joining a group, copying the behaviour of the majority would then be a sensible, adaptive behaviour. A conformist tendency would facilitate acceptance into the group and would probably lead to survival if it involved the decision, for instance, to choose between a nutritious or poisonous food, based on copying the behaviour of the majority."

In our evolutionary past, our ancestors were under constant threat. Keen awareness of others helped our ancestors survive in a dangerous and uncertain world. Modern humans have inherited such adaptive behaviors.

These behaviors include banding together and promoting social harmony. This includes not dissenting from the group. In a hunter-gatherer group, being ostracized or banished could have been a death sentence.

Thoughtful reflection on social influence may lead us to a greater awareness of ourselves and our relationships with others.

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The Science Behind Why People Follow the Crowd

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Why do other people influence us so much?

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How does the book relate to our society today?

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How does the book relate to our society today?

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Why do the boys partake in the ritualistic chant?

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Why do the boys partake in the ritualistic chant?

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What does the Lord of the Flies really represent?

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What does the Lord of the Flies really represent?

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Lord of the Flies  | Chapter 9: A View to a Death | William Golding

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Why do the boys move from civilization to savagery?

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Why do the boys move from civilization to savagery?

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Students will choose one of the following topics to show their new knowledge:
*Build your own island group project.
*Essay on mob mentality in Lord of the Flies.
*Write an alternative perspective to the story.
*Find and present their own examples of mob mentality in today's society.