Little adapted to reasoning, crowds are quick to act... How powerless they are to hold any opinions other than those which are imposed upon them.... [They are led] by seeking what produces an impression on them and what seduces them." Pages xvi, xx,
"[Crowds possess a] collective mind which makes
them feel, think and act in a manner quite different... [The member of a crowd
gains] a sentiment of invincible power which allows [him] to yield to instincts
which, had he been alone, he would... have kept under restraint." Page 9
"In the case of human crowds the
chief is often nothing more than a ringleader or agitator, but as such he
plays a considerable part. His will is the nucleus around which the
opinions of the crowd are grouped and attain to identity. ... A crowd is a
servile flock that is incapable of ever doing without a master. The leader has
... himself been hypnotised by the idea, whose apostle he has since become. It
has taken possession of him to such a degree that everything outside it
vanishes, and that every contrary opinion appears to him an error..."
Page
118
"The arousing of faith --
whether religious, political, or social, whether faith in a work, in a
person, or an idea -- has always been the function of the great leaders
of crowds, and it is on this account that their influence is always very great."
Page
120
"These ringleaders and agitators
may be divided into two clearly defined classes. The one includes the men
who are energetic and possess, but only intermittently, much strength of will,
the other the men, far rarer than the preceding, whose strength of will is
enduring...." Page
122
"When, however, it is proposed to
imbue the mind of a crowd with ideas and beliefs -- with modern social theories,
for instance -- the leaders have recourse to different expedients. The principal
of them are three in number and clearly defined -- affirmation,
repetition, and contagion....
"
Affirmation pure and simple, kept free of all reasoning and all proof, is one of
the surest means of making an idea enter the mind of crowds. The conciser
an affirmation is, the more destitute of every appearance of proof and
demonstration, the more weight it carries.... Statesmen called upon to
defend a political cause, and commercial men pushing the sale of their products
by means of advertising are acquainted with the value of affirmation.
Affirmation, however, has no real influence unless it be constantly
repeated, and so far as possible in the same terms. It was Napoleon, I
believe, who said that there is only one figure in rhetoric of serious
importance, namely, repetition....
"The influence of
repetition on crowds... This power is due to the fact that the repeated
statement is embedded in the long run in those profound regions of our
unconscious selves in which the motives of our actions are forged. At
the end of a certain time we have forgotten who is the author of the repeated
assertion, and we finish by believing it. To this circumstance is due the
astonishing power of advertisements. When we have read a hundred, a
thousand, times that X's chocolate is the best, we imagine we have heard it said
in many quarters, and we end by acquiring the certitude that such is the
fact...." Pages 126-127
"When an affirmation has been
sufficiently repeated and there is unanimity in this repetition -- as has
occurred in the case of certain famous financial undertakings rich enough to
purchase every assistance -- what is called a current of opinion is
formed and the powerful mechanism of
contagion
intervenes. Ideas, sentiments,
emotions, and beliefs possess in crowds a contagious power as intense as that of microbes." Page 127
"
Imitation, to which so much influence is attributed in social phenomena, is in
reality a mere effect of contagion. ... [What is] affirmed comes by
repetition to fix itself in the mind in such a way that it is accepted in the
end as a demonstrated truth." Page 127?
Communal reinforcement: "Communal reinforcement is a social phenomenon in which a
concept or idea is repeatedly asserted in a community, regardless of whether
sufficient empirical evidence has been presented to support it. Over time,
the concept or idea is reinforced to become a strong belief in many people's
minds, and may be regarded by the members of the community as
fact. ...
"
The phrase 'millions of
people can't all be wrong' is indicative of the common tendency to accept a
communally reinforced idea without question....
"Communal reinforcement can be
seen as a positive force in society if it reinforces a concept or idea which is
true or beneficial to society..."
Meme: "[rhymes with
theme], coined in 1976 by the zoologist and evolutionary scientist
Richard Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural information transferable from one
mind to another.... A meme propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution and
diffusion — analogous in many ways to the behavior of the
gene...
"Proponents of memes
suggest that memes evolve via natural selection... on the premise that
variation, mutation, competition... influence their replicative
success."
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