The Destructive Psychology of Mob Mentality
In recent ages, it’s normal to see online mobs.
I’m sure you’ve seen a few.
Imagine your favorite social media creator.
Now imagine 10 of them.
Has at least one of them gotten intense backlash within the past 3 years?
There was a very prominent finance YouTuber who was on top of the world in 2019.
Then there was an upcoming channel that made an “exposed video” on him.
- The exposed video went viral.
Soon, a mob came for the prominent finance YouTuber.
The prominent finance YouTuber was flooded with negative comments:
- Fraud
- Scammer
- Bullshit artist
I was seeing this man get mobbed.
Since then, I became highly curious about how mob mentality works.
Why Nuance is Earned
Logic is the ability to connect dots in a sequential manner.
At a baseline level, the brain operates thru generalities.
The brain operates thru generalities because it doesn’t like too many details, at first.
It likes a big-picture understanding so it can preserve energy for other tasks.
If a certain topic is important to the user of the brain, then the user will learn more about the topic.
- They will learn the theory of the subject.
- Build practical experience.
- Then they will connect the dots in a sequential way that leads to meaning.
Logic is earned.
Logic separates humans from animals.
How Mob Mentality Forms
A mob rarely speaks in nuances.
Not because they can’t.
But because that isn’t what MOVES people.
To move people, it’s important to speak to the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind has 2 components:
- Imagery
- Feelings
It wants to see things.
It wants to feel things.
Groups often use visuals (or descriptive words that spark the imagination) to make their argument.
And normally these visuals are cherry-picked to get a rise out of others.
An example is the mainstream media.
They will get snippets of a 2-hour-long content.
Then they will present the snippets to a group.
Most likely, those snippets were chosen to generate strong FEELINGS in the group.
Now the group is driven into action.
I saw this happen a few years ago.
There was a lot of looting going on.
You can say the looting was partly due to fighting against social injustice.
But what really got the ball rolling was the strategic messaging of the mainstream.
That messaging got picked up by micro-influencers.
The micro-influencers spread the narrative further.
The snowball narrative turned into an avalanche.
From there, cars were flipped, windows were shattered, and buildings were set on fire.
The Antidote to Falling for Mob Mentality
Henry Ford once said:
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”
There may be someone reading this article right now and thinking:
‘I’m not going to fall for mob mentality. I’m going to think!’
They fail to realize that thinking is not easy.
It requires work!
That’s like saying:
‘I’m going to bench press 300 pounds 5 times in a row.’
If you really want to bench press that much, then you’ll need to structure your life to achieve that goal.
Don’t just think a strong physique will be presented to you.
Independent thought is earned.
And it requires a couple of variables to come into alignment.
The most important variable is:
- Emotional restraint.
If you can’t control your emotions, then a sharp intellect does more harm than good.
After emotional restraint, other variables include:
- Emphasis on 1st hand experience.
- Knowing a lot.
- Bridging gaps in understanding with theory.
- Solving real-world problems.
A problem solver is not born from sitting on their ass thinking all day.
They are born from doing.
Why Mob Mentality Leans Negative
Not all group thinking is negative.
A lot of group thinking is positive.
There was a time when different groups would come to my school and try to recruit students to their movement.
Some of the groups advocated for peace.
Or planting trees.
On the other hand, a lot of groups seem negative.
Why?
Number 1, this can be an illusion.
Often, negative groups are promoted in the algorithm.
Because that’s what gets clicks.
Therefore, they get more eyes on their message.
Another reason is that humans feel druglike effects with negativity.
It feels good.
There were a lot of tyrants back in the day who would intentionally spark fear in their people.
Once the people feared the tyrant, suddenly, the tyrant would act sweet.
‘Why did the tyrant do that?’
Because after the shock of fear, the people felt like they were dependent on the tyrant.
The people now appreciated the tyrant’s rare bursts of goodness.
The nervous system has a love-hate relationship with negativity.
It doesn’t like negativity because it feels stressed.
It loves negativity because it feels a thrill.
This love-hate dynamic is what causes group thinking to often tilt negative.
Added to this, the individual members of the group have a thing called the negativity bias.
This is when the brain places more importance on negative data rather than positive data for survival reasons.
A human would rather run away from pain before seeking pleasure.
How to Deal with Mobs
There is a saying:
‘When the mob comes for you, never apologize.’
I think this quote is good to a certain degree.
Because the mob cannot be reasoned with.
They are fueled by emotions.
If you try to logically break down your points, they are going to look for 1 fumble.
Then they will center your entire argument around that 1 fumble.
If you are genuinely remorseful, then apologize.
But if you have no remorse, then avoid getting shamed into saying sorry.
With that being said, realize that everyone is trying to sell you a narrative.
- The media.
- Family members.
- Political groups.
If you are incapable of logical thinking, then all narratives sound logical.
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