Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/366

 352 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

surely they will reach a common plane of feeling or purpose. But this does not tell us whether this plane will lie near the top or near the bottom or in the middle zone of the mass. The greater the susceptibility to contagion, the sooner a unity will appear. But whether this unit will be wiser or sillier, nobler or baser, than the average of its component individuals remains in doubt.

Some light is thrown on the problem by considering if the suggestibility of all those who form the crowd is heightened in an equal degree by the influence of propinquity. If it is, then the aggregate will still reflect the prevailing character of its units. But such is not the case. There are at least two descriptions of people who in the give-and-take of the throng are more likely to impose suggestions than to accept them. The enlightened and reflective are from their intellectual habits able to criticise and appraise the suggestions that impinge upon them. They are quick to see if a suggestion clashes with their interests, their convictions, or their ideals, and to react accordingly. The ignorant, on the contrary, having at hand no such ready tests are at the mercy of the leader or the claque, and may be stam- peded into a course of action quite at variance with their real desires.

Again, the fanatical and impassioned members of a crowd are less responsive to impressions from without because of their inner tension. Being determined from within, they emit power- ful suggestions, but are little influenced by others. There is thus a tendency for the warped, the inflamed, the overwrought, to impart their passion to the rest and to sweep along with them the neutral and indifferent. This is why, as the crowd comes under the hypnotic spell of numbers, the extremists gain the upper hand of the moderates.

One result of reciprocal suggestion is that association in a crowd renders every psychic manifestation more intense. Masked by anonymity, people throw off customary restraint and give their feelings exaggerated expression. To be heard one does not speak ; one shouts. To be seen one does not simply show one's self ; one gesticulates. Boisterous laughter, frenzied objurga-