... mindless puppet, possibly controlled by the crowd's leader, and capable of performing any act, however atrocious or heroic. Later research on crowds support some of Le Bon's arguments, although the extremity of the action clearly depends, in large part, on the type of crowd being observed. In general members of casual crowds, audiences and queues conform to social norms, whereas members of mobs and crowds in panic display hostile and fearful actions, respectively. In addition, individuals do not necessarily have to be concentrated in a single location to display atypical actions, collective movements such as fads, crazes, fashions, rumours, mass hysteria, and social movements can influence widely dispersed individuals. The object of Le Bon's work was always the crowd, which he understood as a mentally unified organism with a single soul that differs substantially from the characteristics of the individuals that make it up. Le Bon claims that crowds seem to ...

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