Zimbardo's Deindividuation Theory

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The theory of deindividuation postulates that people are more susceptible to engage in anti-normative behaviors when their self-awareness has been stripped (Zimbardo, 1969). This idea was first introduced by Le Bon (1895), who noticed that personalities disintegrate in the presence of crowds. He stated that this environment leads them to act more by the pleasure principle rather than being liable for their actions. This idea intrigued others to research more in depth the consequences of treating others as if they belong to a group, rather than have their own identity. Festinger, Pepitone, and Newcomb (1952) did further research on this phenomena, and coined the term deindividuation, which is when “individuals are not seen or paid attention to as individuals.” (p. 382). They state that being in …show more content…
Specifically, there is no research done on the individual differences in this aggression (e.g. whether a more aggressive child before individuation will continue those behaviors less, equally, or more after being stripped of their identity). Rehm and colleagues (1987) conducted a field experiment to test if children that wore uniforms during a hand ball game would participate in more aggressive acts compared to the children that did not wear uniforms. Their results were consistent with deindividuation theory, because the children that were less identifiable by wearing orange uniforms carried out more aggressive acts than the children that wore their own gym clothes of all different colors and styles. One aspect that was not consistent with Zimbardo was the sex differences; girls were not more aggressive after being less identifiable, while the boys were significantly. Rehm et al. (1987) provided the explanation that winning games are more of men’s norms rather than

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Deindividuation Theory

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