Acceleration: the bigger the group/crowd the bigger the bang
The rally at Nuremberg was BIG, as were the Philbrick rally in Los Angeles, the MAGA rally at the Madison Square Garden, the outdoor concert at Woodstock, and the U-2 concert at the Oakland Colosseum. These large events are certainly newsworthy and dramatically photogenic. However, something else must be noted. Being big, these events are also amenable to particularly large group cohesion and group coercion effects.
A mass of people is contagious, the “virus” being a blending of the pheromones, neighbors, schizogenesis, and regression. Much as a bacterial virus flourishes in the environment of a living host, the viruses operating in groups flourish when the group is very large, when there is some stimulus (often primitive) to stir up passions, and when the group is in some way constrained (such as in a stadium, on a large field, or at an urban plaza).
Expanding bubble of belief
It is not only that the strength and velocity of the binding and connecting intensifies when people congregate in large groups. The Bubble of Belief held by each member of the group expands in size. Furthermore, the Collective Bubble of the entire group grows – even exponentially. There is an expanding Bubble that is filled with content eliciting joy, hopefulness and optimism. An expanding Bubble of fear, hopelessness and pessimism can instead be present in many assembled groups. This expansion seems to arise from the neighborhood effect coupled with something called Balance Theory. To keep our perspective, practices and interpersonal relationships in “balance,” we reinforce, correct or even change our attitudes and beliefs based on our strong need to find balance in our relationships with other people.
We wish to be aligned with what they believe (Heider, 1946). It is hard to be friends with those holding widely divergent beliefs. As a result, we either change friends or change beliefs. Balance is also found in our relationships with people we admire and wish to emulate. Our sports hero supposedly eats the “Breakfast of Champions” cereal every day, so we must do the same. Our favorite movie actor can’t live a day without their nutritious drink or their exercise regime, so we follow them in our own routine.
We discover an expanding Bubble of Belief when we couple this balancing act with the neighborhood effect. Our neighbors in the crowd obviously share at least one belief with us. They are attending the same rally, concert or recitation. Perhaps they share other beliefs with us. This must be so, if we are to remain in “balance” with them at this gathering. So, our beliefs begin to expand as we acquire the beliefs of our neighbors (balancing them and integrating them with our own existing beliefs). A collective belief is formed alongside individual beliefs. The collective belief is often reinforced by the speaker or performer’s impassioned utterances, be they speeches, songs or stories. Growth of the Bubble at the collective level is often exponential (a power law) (Taleb, 2010), given that there is a reverberating reinforcement of the beliefs that sweep (flock) through the crowd, and that the presenter is often integrating and providing evidence and rational for the clustering beliefs within the collective bubble.
The Big Bang consists of not only the exploding of Ligato strength and velocity, but also the expanding size of the Belief Bubble that accompanies Ligato. It is within the context of Ligato that our beliefs are personified and become an integral part of what we will often refer to in this book as the reality we create when interacting with other people (Brothers, 2001).
Contagion: Our Negative Interpersonal Relationships Vectors
We get high together in a crowd, get angry together, and get fearful together. Our gathering on behalf of an evil cause only amplifies the psychological and physical damage we can do by ourselves. We turn once again to the factors that contribute to contagion.
Pheromones of Hate
Could there be specific pheromones in human beings that promote and/or sustain hate? We do know among some species that pheromones are used to make territory. We witness this every day when our male dog or cat decides to pee on something or someone. As noted, pheromones in some species provide a shared signal that something is threatening and that defense against this source of threat needs to be engaged. For some of us, this behavior has been painfully experienced when we have been stung by a threatened swarm of wasps.
