Studying Behavior

In the field of sociology, it is useful to examine collective behavior, social contagion, and social movement when one is attempting to explain or analyze behavior or issues in society. Applying the rationale behind these terms enables sociologists to determine many things, including the likelihood that someone would act a certain way if he or she were not a member of a group or how the masses feel about certain events. 

People are often more empowered and emboldened to take action on something that upsets them or respond harshly to something if they feel they have strength in numbers in their favor. Collective behavior often stems from a shared experience, shared identity, or shared common interest that a loosely formed group of people have. What is fascinating about collective behavior is that it can apply to organized behavior such as protests, meetings, or clubs, but it can also be applied to more chaotic situations like panic, looting, and mob mentality. Examining collective behavior is a versatile tool in that way since analyzing it and applying collective behavior theories to infinite situations is possible. Though it is not often overt, groups that are exhibiting collective behavior will form norms and unwritten rules, and these norms and rules and how members of the group react to them can speak to the mindset of the individuals in the group and aide in predicting the group’s future behavior. 

When a group of people exhibits collective behavior, there must be a mechanism through which that behavior and the norms and rules governing it is spread. Social contagion is that mechanism, and studying social contagion has many values for the field of sociology and for understanding collective behavior. First, studying social contagion may help predict future behavior and prevent that behavior if it is projected to be harmful. Studying the way collective behavior spreads through social contagion also enables sociologists to develop accessible techniques for using social contagion as a way of predicting behavior and influencing behavior. For example, sociologists studying social contagion could form techniques for controlling the social contagion in order to diffuse situations that may get out of hand. Techniques like that could be useful to a variety of people, whether it is cops in a dangerous situation trying to save lives, or a human resources worker trying to increase morale or productivity in a workplace. 

Unlike collective behavior, Social movement often has the benefit of being planned and involving strategy for a preplanned goal. Collective behavior is more impulsive, but social movement is a window into the way people behave when they form a goal, form plans to follow through on it, and act. Social movements also speak to the values of the group pursuing the movements and that group’s norms and rules. Social movements have the ability to conjoin people who do not have membership in a group but may share values with that group. Therefore, studying social movements provides insight into what causes or motivates collective behavior and social contagion. Social movements, arguably, must come before collective behavior and social contagions because similar people will not come together for collective behavior without a common thread connecting them, and those people will not be moved to action without a way of spreading information and making norms and rules known in the form of social contagion.