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Psychology Explains Why We Buy Over-Priced Items On Sale And Make Other Such Bizarre Choices

6.Why does crowd fail to help an accident victim on...

Whydoes crowd fail to help an accident victim on road?

From online trolling to mob mentality, we have often seen our darker side to act unethically when you are part of an anonymous group. This is explained by a phenomenon called 'deindividuation'. Deindividuation, is a psychological theory stating that when we are in groups, we lose some of our self-awareness and become more likely to act in disinhibited, non-socially-normative ways.

In 1976 study, researchers wanted to know under what conditions trick-or-treating kids would be more likely to take extra candy. On Halloween, experimenter stationed themselves inside their homes and opened the doors to trick-or-treaters. Half the time, the experimenter asked the kids what their names were and where they lived and another half of the time they didn't ask anything. In both cases, the experimenters told the kids they were allowed to take only one candy from a bowl and then went away to do some work.

As it turns out, kids were most likely to take more than one candy when they were part of an anonymous group and least likely to take the extra candy when they were identified. To conclude, when we're in groups, we tend to be less inhibited and act in non-ethical ways.

 

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