The Art of Influencing Crowds

When people join a crowd to draw public attention to some perceived injustice, they can often be led into committing acts they would never contemplate on their own. Thus it follows that there will always be those who would influence or exploit crowds for their own purposes. In order to mitigate exploitation of crowds in that manner, people everywhere need competent leaders who can spread a vision of hope in their lives. The long history of society tells us people have always taken on new characteristics when they form an organised crowd to act out their views and concerns. Across the centuries, Western history has been a continual striving for civil liberties, causing mass movements and rebellions. But since social attitudes change with time, modern-day crowd behaviour can best be understood by knowing how present-day attitudes have come about.

To appreciate how crowds are influenced, it is necessary to look behind the events themselves to determine the underlying conditioning that shapes people's beliefs. Since most studies are limited to their own particular field, all these diverse viewpoints must be distilled to a simple, comprehensive picture to advance our understanding of the way crowds behave.

Based on a century of field work, "Crowds and Leadership" brings together the opinions and guidance of investigators from many fields, and distills their findings into a simple, comprehensible picture.