By Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna
Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations. Sri Lanka experienced the biggest mass protests of its time last week as the unfortunate happenings in the country persuaded the majority of its citizens to be a part of one massive protest.
Undoubtedly, being taken advantage of or lied to causes panic and anger in people. When these strong, negative emotions combine, there is no greater fuel for a fire. This may provide an understanding as to why such a massive crowd joined the protests last week.
During this event, we identified different groups of people among the mass gatherings. Some stood against political injustice. Some people didn’t actively take part in the protests, although they wished for social and political change. There is another group who doesn’t believe protests can bring change, but joined the protests because they gave in to peer pressure – who were just following the trend or wanted to feel like they belonged to a particular group. We could also see groups of mobs who blended in with the protestors with different intentions.
Why do some people become activists, while others do not get involved? Could anyone be a protester? What is it that makes someone a political activist? Answers to these questions might help us to understand why we see different intentions and motivations within a crowd that gathered for a common purpose.
What makes a protestor?
Psychological research investigating and explaining these mass gatherings dates back to the mid-1800s. What makes a lot of this research so fascinating is the basic understanding that humans tend to prefer the safety and security of the status quo. We do not want any expert opinion to say that protests are the result of feelings like fear, frustration, and helplessness. From a sociocultural perspective, we look at how politics relates to broader cultures and discourses that construct social worlds and determine the possibilities for political action.
History provides us proof that one of the main reasons people protest is the lack of trust in their government or authority. This is true for a country or even for a small organisation. People in similar situations with a uniting factor have a shared identity, even if it is only a single issue. People’s grievances, when commonly shared, are a very strong motivation for mobilisation. In many situations that involve groups of people, anger and frustration can build upon each other, until the joint rage spills over.
Geographical proximity – where one lives and how close they are to others – has a say on their exposure to the problem. For example, we can notice how the current problems in Sri Lanka affected people in urban areas and rural areas to different degrees. Research implies that it is much more common to see protests in densely populated areas than in rural ones. Spontaneous collective action is easier the more people there are.
Individual differences
Psychologists and sociologists offer fascinating explanations to describe the differences among people when it comes to protest-related behaviour. Some psychologists argue that the reasons for how people behave politically depends on their social identity: how they identify themselves within their social groups and how identities are related to the groups to which people feel they belong.
Experts in social psychology have done extensive work to understand the reasons why people protest, whether they be small and peaceful protests, or large and disorderly protests. Each person has a different orientation toward political action, and this determines how likely they are to take part in political action.
Those who are naturally more oriented towards activism are much more likely to engage in political action and take leadership than those who are low in activism orientation. This orientation is developed through life experiences and socialisation processes, and is thought to be relatively stable. However, this is not to say that it cannot change over time, as ongoing life experiences can change a person’s orientation towards activism.
Crowds cause people to act in a certain way
Gustave Le Bon, a French social psychologist born in 1841, explained why people do the things they do in groups. When people are relieved of individual responsibility, individuals will behave in a more primal fashion. He asserts that “by the mere fact that he forms part of an organised crowd, a man descends several rungs on the ladder of civilisation”. A modern comparison might be the teenager who argues that his own actions of toilet-papering the principal’s house weren’t so bad because everybody else was doing it too.
Crowds cause people to act in a certain way. Gustave Le Bon’s theories suggest that crowds unleash a sort of hypnotic influence on their members. The hypnotic influence combined with the anonymity of belonging to a large group of people, even just for that moment, results in irrational, emotionally charged behaviour. The agitation of the crowd is somehow contagious, and it feeds upon itself, growing with time. In the end, the crowd has assumed a life of its own, stirring up emotions and driving people toward irrational, even violent action.
(The writer is a mental health professional and has, over the past 10 years, contributed to several Sri Lankan media publications in both English and Sinhala languages. She mainly focuses on topics related to psychology and counselling in her writing)
